Welcome to Wonderful Wonder World
by HawkfrostsAvenger
Summary: I had fallen down a hole, landed on a hot... um, Jupitarian? mafia boss, met several not-quite-rabbit-men, and learned that everyone in this freaking crazy would eventually fall in love with me. This totally beat going to my cousin's birthday party, that's for sure. Contains a lot of dark/random/anime humor. /Blood/ X OC
1. Chapter 1

I'm sure you've heard the story of the girl who jumped down the rabbit hole, and you may have even heard about the girl who was dragged down. But I bet my socks that you never heard about the girl who tripped and fell into Wonderland. Okay, I take that back. It's April season, and it's winter right now so I want my socks. And I have a feeling that there're a lot of stories about clumsy people like me tripping into Wonderland.

So yes, I guess I'll start my story now. It all started (dun dun dunn) on an annoyingly cliché summer afternoon. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, the birds were singing, and I, being the main character, was obviously napping in the grass. I bet you were expecting a white rabbit now, right? Don't lie, I know you were. But luckily he didn't come because that would have only made me feel even more hallucinatory.

Actually, I only got up to go to my house. I really~ had to go to the bathroom. Which sucked epically because it was then I chose to embrace my inner klutz and trip on a rock into a conveniently placed _gaping hole._

So now, imagine an (überly awesome) emo-punk girl screaming at the top of her lungs (which you would be to if you were in my place) falling down a giant bottomless pit. Pretend that's you now, just so you can get the full effect. Unless you're a guy; that'd be a bit weird, don't you think? Now then, pretend you really, REALLY have to pee. Not so fun, now is it?

I fell for a long time, all the while distracting myself from my impending doom of wet pants by thinking about how ridiculous it was for a rabbit to dig such an absurdly large hole. Unless it was a demon rabbit, in which case I wanted its autograph.

Of course, my thoughts of the demon rabbit died when I landed. It was surprisingly soft for me falling from three thousand feet and the ground being brick, I must say. Unless it was actually jello. _That_ would've been awesome.

Then I looked down. I had expected that perhaps some flying monkeys had come and placed a super-amazing pillow there for me to fall onto to save me from injuring the bones in my butt. But then I realized that it had been even better: someone had thrown themselves on the ground to protect my overall awesomeness from falling victim to the evil that was the bottom of the pit.

Being me, I was too stupid to stand up. Instead, I decided that now would be the best time of all to ask something very vital to survival.

_"Where is the bathroom?"_

I didn't quite realize it at the time, but that's like someone getting lost and crossing somehow unknowingly into Mexico and asking where they can find a McDonald's. There are so many things that would be more important to know.

I'm not sure if he liked me because he didn't respond. I thought maybe it was because he didn't like über awesome emo-punks, or maybe he was mad because I fell from the sky and landed on him. But can you blame someone for doing that? (By the way, that's _rhetorical_. Don't answer me.)

Then I thought, _'No, it can't be either of those things!'_ So I did the only logical thing and rephrased my question. "¿Puedo ir al baño?" He still didn't respond, but I think he glared at me. "What, do you speak French? Or are you German?" He didn't look very French-like, or Germanic for that matter.

"Young lady," he said in a very formal tone, "if you would be so kind as to get off of me instead of speaking gibberish, perhaps I could help you."

Then it hit me. I was still sitting on him. How embarrassing. (But I still haven't quite figured out why my first assumption was that he spoke Spanish.) I stood up (if not a bit slowly because I was still trying to avoid peeing my pants) and examined him. He was a very fancy looking person donning a white suit (adorned with the four card suits) and a very lovely hat covered in crimson roses, black feathers, and three cards- one was blank, the other had a strange symbol, and the last had '10/6' written in the corner- that I was tempted to steal. So I did.

I must say that I felt awesome in that hat, and that I was glad to see that there were no white flecks in his coal-black hair. But in hindsight, that may have been something to check BEFORE putting in on. Oh well; getting lice would've been worth it.

I expected him to look utterly disgusted at my act of rudeness (what can I say? The guy looked like the type to be all uptight and fancy) but instead he completely shocked me by laughing. "Come with me."

I put on my best thinking face and expected the _Jeopardy! _theme to play. Weird man with a hat that I encountered after falling into the lair of a psycho demon rabbit says "come with me". Obviously I had to be logical.

"Sure, why not?"

He started walking (he looked as though I had broken his spine. It was pretty funny) and I followed down the large spirally-path that led to the bottom of the giant tower that we were on. "Where are we anyway?" I asked, trying once more to take my mind off of my nearly-exploding bladder. "It's so cold."

"This is the Clover Tower." (He said this as though it would help someone who had just fallen from the sky. But I didn't say anything more on the topic. I would much rather bring up a more interesting conversation.)

_'Think small talk,'_ I told myself. "So… What's your favorite color?"

He seemed taken aback by my oh-so-well thought out question and simply stared until I said "Well?" expectantly.

"Crimson, I suppose."

"And your name is?" Yes, that's right. I hadn't skipped over us introducing ourselves, although I didn't mention me spitting on his shoe. (Which I didn't actually do, but I wanted to see what you would do if I said that) Not wanting to be rude (or rather, more rude than I had already been), I quickly added, "I'm Toki Hana."

"I'm pleased to meet you, Toki. My name is Blood Dupre."

Anybody else thinking "oh my god" here? I mean, he was absolutely the hottest guy EVER, he had a totally über amazingly awesome hat, AND his name was Blood.

"Soooo… Where are we going, anyway?"

"To the Hatter Mansion," he explained. "I'm sure you'd like to know where you're at. And besides, you said you had to go to the bathroom, didn't you?"

I had a feeling that so far all I was to him was a joke, which I didn't mind at all. He looked like the kind of guy who would kill you if he got bored. I didn't doubt that I was in some psycho world where that would be legal, too.

Or maybe I was in Mexico. I hoped that was the case because I really wanted a taco.

Sadly, there were no tacos in my future. We stopped at a gigantically-enormous gate with two little kids (who- in case you hadn't guessed by the way the story's going- were identical besides the fact one wore blue and the other red) wielding axes big enough to slice through the Empire State Building. "Boss, who's the lady?" one asked.

"She's pretty!" Normally someone would think "thank you so much!" here, but I was too amazed at how similar their voices were. It was like they were the same person.

"This is Toki. She will be staying with us here."

I waved excitedly, and by now I had nearly forgotten how badly I had to go to the bathroom. Which had been quite nice, I must say. (Okay, I lied. I still remembered.)

But that's when I saw _him.(__That's_ when I forgot.)

/AN. Like it? XD Toki's just like me. Great, another persona. I guess I do refer to myself as her a lot… Sorry for the cliffhanger, but I thought it'd be fun~ Reviews please, OR OFF WITH YOUR HEAD! XD


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: If I owned the Wonderful Wonder World series, it would mean that I had died and gone to heaven.

AN/ If you're reading this then obviously you either A.) Enjoyed the first chapter or B.) Are hoping the plot starts developing in this chapter. If A, thank you. If B, you'll have to wait just a bit longer XD. I haven't quite decided on the plot yet. I only have a partial idea so far.

Anyway, 'tis enough ranting. Onto the story~

–

"Oh. My. God. IT'S THE DEMON RABBIT~~~~! Can I have your autograph?"

"I am not a rabbit! Just because I have big ears people automatically assume that I'm like that stupid Peter White guy! And who cares if I like carrot dishes? I don't like raw carrots, so I'm obviously NOT a rabbit! And who is this girl, anyway Blood?"

Wow. This guy was a total psycho. But he was still pretty neat. I mean, how many other blonde bunny-people do you see? Well, apparently he wasn't a rabbit, but still. He was almost close to being as awesome as Blood! "I'm Toki. And I'm very sorry for calling you a rabbit; you must be a donkey, then"

"Whaaa~~? A donkey? My ears are just big, that's all!"

Blood pulled me away for a moment and whispered in my ear, "He's a bit... sensitive about his ears."

I couldn't help but wonder why he was telling me this AFTER I had received a rant. "Okay. I'll remember that. Oh.. and... um... Would you be so kind as to show me where the bathroom is?" (Yes, that's right. I remembered that I had to pee desperately.)

"Of course. Come with me."

I would go on an epic info-dump-like rant about my first impression of the mansion, but to tell the truth I didn't pay much attention. But the bathroom was very nicely cleaned, just in case you were wondering.

After I no longer had to worry about my bladder exploding I decided that it'd probably be best if I tracked down Blood. Instead I poked my head into a random room and started exploring.

I must say, the sofa formation was absolutely stunning. Okay, I lied. It was just two red couches on either side of a table. There was a desk with a bunch of boring looking papers on it and there was a bed. And of course about three hundred bookshelves. The owner of the room must have loved reading.

Then the door opened and I turned to look, setting down the book that I had taken off the shelf. "Toki, what are you doing in here?"

"Oh, hi Blood. I got kind of lost and then I got distracted. I'm sorry, I probably shouldn't have started snooping around in your house, huh?"

He walked over to me and placed his hand on my face (causing my heart to nearly explode). "You should be more careful. This place is dangerous."

"Dangerous?"

He nodded. "After all, you _are _in the home of the mafia."

"Mafia?" I yelled in total panic.

Okay, if you believed _that _ one you're totally gullible. Actually I said something along the lines of "Ohmygodreally?"

I'm a strange person, in case you haven't guessed.

Blood smiled, amused by my odd response. "You certainly are interesting."

"Why thank you. So, I've already ruled out Mexico, and I know I'm not in Kansas anymore (not that I ever was, but I had to make a stupid reference), so where exactly are we?"

"Ah, yes." He walked over to the desk and gestured for me to follow, so I did. He pointed in the bottom left hand corner. "We are here, in the Hatter territory. This," he said, pointing to the right, "is Clover Tower. To the north of there is the the Amusement Park, then we have the Circus, and lastly Heart Castle."

"Okay, so there's a castle, amusement park, circus, and tower. And you're a member of the mafia, correct?"

"Yes. I'm the boss of the Hatters."

He went on to tell me about all of the weirdos that live in Wonderland. Don't worry, you'll meet them later. I don't feel like listing them right now.

So after about ten minutes of his lovely introductions I finally returned to reality. "Okay," I said as he finished speaking as though I had actually paid attention. "Soo~. You've been really nice and all, but it's-" I looked out the window for a second, "noon? I could've sworn that it was night time a minute ago."

"What a shame. I always feel tired during the day."

"But... It was just midnight. The only other place that time changes like that is Mexico. Oh wait, nevermind... But still!"

"I see that the ways of my world are quite different from yours then."

"I think I hit my head when I tripped. Maybe I'm in a coma or something. Either that or I'm on Jupiter. I'm leaning towards the first one, though."

Actually, it'd be pretty awesome to be on Jupiter. I mean, then I'd be friends with a Jupitarian mafia boss from Wonderland. Pretty awesome, no?

"Perhaps it'd be best if you stayed here for a while. You won't be able to return home if you have no idea where you're headed, now will you?"

"I suppose you're right."

So in case you're wondering, I pretty much died there. Hot mafia boss with the world's most überly awesome hat that may or may not have been Jupitarian says that I should stay at his mansion that has not only a bunch of random hats but a rabbit-person facing an identity crisis. This was SO much better than going to my little cousin's birthday party, that's for sure.

I couldn't help but wonder what my family was thinking. If I was in a coma I think my little brother would be bouncing off the walls, my parents would be crying, and my sister would be... I have no clue what she'd be doing. Now if I had gone to _Jupiter_... THAT would be a different story.

"So, you'll be staying here with us for the time being?"

"Yes, if that's alright with you Mr. Dupre." Just to be ridiculous and probably somewhat offensive to the British, I said this in my best fake English accent.

He smiled. It was one of those freaky, evil smiles that only vampires and psychopaths in those lame horror-romance movies give you. It almost made me uncomfortable to be in the same room as him.

_Almost._

/ XD This chapter probably would've been a bit better, but I got distracted with playing Clover and Joker so the beginning's not very great. Cat-chan and Luna-sama said it was okay (yes, I do call my sister "chan" and my best friend "sama" XD) so I figured why not upload it XD I have a Christmas song parody to go with this story as well, and if Cat-chan finishes my RPG XP JNKNA character set in time possible a little game~

Gotta love Jupitarian mafia bosses. I think Toki's one of my favorite FCs.

Reviews are welcome, but if you flame me I shall try my very hardest to make your life mizerable. (typo for a Gackt reference XD)

~~~~~~~~3


	3. Chapter 3

/Disclaimer: If Blood Dupre (and the other bishies) belonged to me I would not have an emo corner that is used frequently.

So, if you're returning again than obviously you have faith in me or find this as amusing to read as I do to write. Beware, this chapter features other bishies besides Blood D: Shocking, no? XD

Blood, being the mafia boss, obviously had work to be doing (that probably included epically planned out, slow, violent murders of seemingly innocent people that he didn't like) so he couldn't entertain me all day. He said (and I quote) "Why don't you explore the mansion for a bit? I should be back by the next cycle (I'm not sure I understood what he meant by "cycle", but I think perhaps he meant something about the randomly changing times. Or maybe he was talking about the dishwasher cycles. In which case, he would have been late because the rinse cycle started about fifteen seconds after he left .)."

So, being me- the epic emo-punk girl that wasn't even slightly afraid of the mafia- I did the logical thing again.

I watched them as they vanished into the woods outside of the mansion and then started following them silently. Unfortunately I tried to stay too far behind and lost them. So instead I chose to explore.

I tried desperately to remember the map Blood had showed me, but sadly I could only remember the way to that cold place. I decided that going there would be somehow worth my time. I was hoping that since the not-rabbit wasn't a demon that maybe there'd be one there.

It was kind of strange because after walking for a while I saw some snow. But there was a perfect line dividing the leaves (I assumed it was fall at the Hatter Mansion) and the insert-lame-analogy-for-snow-here.

I remembered (gasp! _I_ remembered something about my surroundings? That's a shock!) that it was snowy when I fell on Blood, so I figured that this was the way to that tower place. After trudging through the cold for about ten minutes (the worst ten minutes of my life, by the way. Did I mention I was wearing a cut-off sleeve shirt that only covered about half of my torso and a relatively short skirt?) I saw the path that Blood and I had gone on when he was taking me back to the mansion. I followed it and then like magic I was standing in front of a giant tower. I walked in through the front door (looking back on it, I was a pretty rude person, wasn't I?) and looked around. There were a lot of stairs, pillars, and clovers. Besides that, nothing much. Oh yeah, and a lot of rooms and green couches. Seriously, it looked like the home of a psycho-patriotic Irishman on St. Patrick's Day or something. Or a superstitious person on Friday the Thirteenth. Either way works.

"Excuse me, miss, but what business do you have here?"

I had been so caught up in trying to find something worth exploring that I didn't notice the weird guy approaching me. He had a really deep, reptilian voice. And reptilian eyes. And blue hair. And a lizard tattoo on his neck that really caught my attention.

"Oh, I was just kind of lost and I found this place and thought that maybe I could get directions." That was a total lie, but oh well.

He half-nodded and I took this as a chance to stare at his tattoo. Seriously, it looked like it was going to come alive at any moment!

That aside, he took my hand and smiled a freaky smile somewhat similar to that of Blood. Only I _did _feel uncomfortable to be in the same room as the lizard guy because said lizard guy had not in fact done anything to make me trust him. "I will take you to Nightmare-sama."

_Nightmare-sama?_ Tell me THAT'S the kind of person you trust! All the same, I didn't protest in hopes that I would either A. have an epic chance to go all ninja-like on these people and make an awesome escape or B. meet that demon and/or rabbit I've been looking for.

He led me up a flight of stairs (decorated with another four-leafed clover. Seriously, pyscho-patriotic Irishmen! Unless this was like, the Jupitarian and/or Mexican symbol of happiness. Probably the latter.) and into a nice little office space like the ones you see in those stupid shows where people are looking for houses. Only this one came complete with six cats, a load of paperwork, and a Nightmare-sama.

Apparently the lizard-guy's master was not in fact supposed to be smoking at the time. He seemed quite irritated, actually, and grabbed the pipe right out of Nightmare's hand. "Nightmare-sama, you shouldn't be smoking. Unless of course you want to go back to the hospital..."

"No! Anything but that! ...Wait a second, _I'm _in charge here, Gray!"

"Yes, but as a loyal servant I can't have my master dying, now can I?"

"Shut upp~~~~~~~!"

"Excuse me," I chimed in(Yes, I did but into their conversation. Which I probably wouldn't have done had I noticed the knives on Gray's sleeves. But still.), "but do you happen to be a demon?

"What? How did she know, Gray? Now how am I supposed to make a cool appearance in her dreams?"

Gray did a face-palm and then stared at me. "How did you know he was a demon?"

"Oh my god, he actually IS a demon? That is so cool! See, I was looking for this demon earlier and all I found was a rabbit guy who said he wasn't a rabbit and..."

I ranted for a long time. And I bet you guys don't care because I'm pretty sure you read the beginning of this story already. So you don't need a recap.

"The Almighty Me (I almost burst into laughter when he referred to himself as this) happens to be the master of this tower. I am the incubus from Clover. Pleased to make your aquaintance, I think."

Yeahhh... I think he probably was leaning more towards the "I think" part.

"Oh yeah, me llamo Toki Hana, by the way."

They didn't speak Spanish, but I think they were actually smart enough to assume that I was telling them my name. "Now then, could you give me directions?"

"To where?"

"Anywhere."

"Okay then. Well, the Castle of Heart is that way, and the Amusement Park is towards that direction but you probably shouldn't go-"

"Amusement Park? I'm out of here. Thanks for the help, Mr. Incubus and lizard-tattoo-guy~."

I was out of there like another lame analogy. I found my way out of the tower in about ten minutes and headed out towards the Amusement Park. It sounded fun.

I knew I was either there or completely lost whenever the snow turned into green grass and the coldness that made me want to stab myself got nice and warm like summer. So apparently seasons changed with the territories here. At least it would make it harder for me to get lost until I decided if going home would be worth it. There were no hot Jupitarian mafia bosses there. Nightmare and Gray were pretty cool too, and the not-rabbit.

I kind of felt uncomfortable when I heard screaming, but I still carried on. Then I heard the screaming again and someone randomly grabbed me.

"Hey, Pierce! No fair hiding behind someone!"

"Shut up, you stupid cat!" I looked down at "Pierce" and jumped.

"Oh my god you're a mouse!" He stared at me like I had just pointed out something obvious. Which I did, but still.

"Help me! The evil cat's going to eat me!"

I looked around for the evil cat. Then I saw him. He was... pink. Somehow he pulled it off though. Actually, he was more like a were-cat. He was dressed in black with a bunch of chains, he had ear piercings, a collar, pink hair, pinkish ears tipped in purple, and a giant fluff of purple striped pink fur. "Aww, he's so cute~! I like the Amusement Park~!" Pierce stared up at me and he was crying, so I panicked. "Oh, um... Mr. Cat, you should stop harassing Pierce. And Pierce, you should definitely stop crying and let go of me."

"I'm sorry." The mouse person pulled away and frowned. "Can we still be friends?"

"Yeah, of course."

"Who are you anyway?" the punk-were-cat said. "You don't look familiar. Are you an outsider?"

"I guess. I fell down a hole and landed on the mafia boss, if that means anything to you. My name's Toki."

"Toki, huh? Well, I hate to sound rude, but you probably shouldn't hang out around here if you're friends with Blood. The old man that runs this place is in a pretty bad mood thanks to the Hatter."

"Oh, so they don't like each other?"

"Not in the least."

"I see..." It figured that Blood was enemies with the people at the Amusement Park. That sucked, but I decided to just go back before I got in trouble for wandering off.

"Toki, what are you doing here?" I continued walking, pretending that I didn't hear. "Toki, I know you hear me."

So much for _not _getting in trouble.

/AN: Poor Toki XD I was going to make this chapter longer, but I decided that it'd be better just to end it with Blood showing up. I didn't feel like throwing Mary into the mix of new characters that Toki met because I felt like I was already pushing it with Boris, Pierce, Nightmare, Elliot, and Gray.

That, and I only had a two hour delay for school, not a closure and I WAS hoping on having this up during period three since I work in the guidance office at my school. Sadly, I only got up one chapter on deviantART and fanfiction XD

Please review~


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I may _live_ in Wonderful Wonder World, but QuinRose still owns it.

So, you're back again. If I get a flame on chapter 4 or beyond I do have right to track whoever does it down and personally slap them for reading this much of the story even when they don't like it. XD

I'm just going to say this now, I mean no offense to anyone that happens to be Mexican or Jupitarian. I have nothing personal against you, but since I've never been there and Toki's my persona I figured that she'd be just as clueless as I am.

Blood was staring at me expectantly, wanting to hear my excuse for being way on the opposite side of Wonderland. I didn't have one, actually, so I smiled innocently and slowly tried to back away towards the were-cat. "You're stubborn attitude will prove to become quite irritating, Toki."

"You shouldn't be mad at her. I heard that there was an outsider and I went to go see her. I took her here but then Pierce told me that the old man was ticked off so I was going to bring her home."

He raised an eyebrow at the cat's explanation. "I see."

"Oh, uhm... Yeah, thanks for that," I said. _'Crap, I don't even know his name!'_

"Then I must thank you, Boris, for keeping her entertained."

Boris the pink cat. I could remember that. Darn it, that rhymed. "Well then, I'll see you around Boris."

He nodded. "Bye Toki~!" Pierce yelled in his irritating mouse voice. He was annoying, but cute, so he was forgiven.

The two animal people waved as I walked off with the Hatters. I began exchanging awkward glances with Blood. Okay, so I was throwing him awkward glances and he was just kind of staring at me questioningly. "Why do you keep looking at me like that?"

I shrugged. "Don't know. It seemed like fun at the time."

Eventually we came to the Hatter Mansion (I was especially happy since we had cut through the Clover Tower territory). Blood gestured to one of the servants and called her over to us.

The servants were pretty weird; most of them had similar hairstyles, were covered in red roses, and were missing their eyes. I wondered how the could see to do their jobs, but I figured it was a Mexican thing or something. Or maybe Jupitarian. Who knows?

"Please show Toki to one of the guest rooms," Blood said in his über-hot voice, giving me his best Kaname Kuran smile. "You must be tired after having such an adventure today."

Come to think of it, I was exhausted. I hadn't even noticed until he said that. "Thank you, Blood." I followed the faceless woman into the Mansion. She showed me to an empty bedroom and smiled kindly.

"If you need anything, please don't be afraid to ask."

I nodded. "Thank you." She walked away to go do something else, leaving me to explore my room. I peeked out into the hallway instead of doing so and was shocked to see that I actually remembered something else. The room across the hall was Blood's room (who could forget a room with that many books and such a boringly amazing sofa-formation?). I'm pretty sure that would make most people uncomfortable, but I was actually kind of relieved. He was the kind of person that you're scared to be around, but at the same time he makes you feel secure because you know how strong he is.

Satisfied with my discovery, I decided to go to sleep. I sat down on the big fluffy bed for about five minutes, trying to take in everything that had happened. "Okay," I said to myself, "I fell from the sky, landed on a hot mafia boss named Blood, met a not-rabbit, found an incubus and a guy with a lizard tattoo, nearly froze to death, and got help from a mouse person and were-cat."

That was when I realized two things. One, I was probably in a coma. Two, the word "coma" looks like "comma".

I fell asleep pretty quickly, I think. I don't know; I wasn't in the habit of timing how long it took me to fall asleep at night and/or early morning.

Anyway, once I was asleep I started dreaming. A very weird dream, at that. It kind of sucked though because you always have more energy when you wake up if you don't have dreams. At least, I think that's what I heard somewhere. I'm not quite sure on that one.

Unimportant rant aside, I found myself in some place that looked like someone had either thrown up crayons or exploded a few giant Crayola markers. Seriously, it was a giant mix of green, purple, with a touch of yellowish green and blue. Then I heard an ominous voice, calling out my name like an ominous voice calling out my name.

"Nightmare-sama?" I asked. "No, it couldn't be you. You were just that crazy demon-guy that looked like James from that one show with those weird little things... Digimon or whatever."

I was right though. It WAS Nightmare. He was using his epic demon-ness to levitate, which I didn't understand because as much as the world LOOKED like the vomit of a crayon eating dragon, it wasn't.

Apparently he didn't appreciate my non-specific comment that could've been taken as an insult because he started making a bunch of undignified grunts.

Then I remembered something. He was an incubus. Not the kind of person you want in your dreams (most of the time). "Soo~... What are you doing here anyway? I'm trying to sleep."

He went on to tell me something that I didn't quite care about. Meanwhile, I had curled up on the ground in an attempt to fall asleep again. (Yes, I was trying to fall asleep in a dream while in a coma. Makes perfect sense, doesn't it?)

All I remembered from his rant was something about everyone eventually falling in love with me. Then I woke up and nearly had a heart attack.

/AN: Yeah, I'm not a fan of this chapter. I tried to develop a bit of plot with Nightmare appearing, but I feel like I'm playing him out to be just a bit too crazy. Probably because I was distracted with a show about Nazis while writing this, but oh well XD

Thanks for reading, and I hope that no one gives up with this story because of this suckish chapter ^^' I'll try to have chapter 5 up soon!


	5. Chapter 5

/Hey there, I'm glad to see that you're still reading this! I can't say I'm a fan of the last chapter but hopefully this one's better! I can't believe I'm already at chapter 5 XD I wish I could write my original stories this fast! Not counting this chapter or notes, this story is currently at 4909 words~ Who knows, maybe I'll be able to make the 50000 words for NaNo next year XD

Disclaimer: If I owned the Wonderful Wonder World series, it would be in English no matter how much of a threat there would be of it crashing and burning.

If I owned Vampire Knight, my friend Yuki probably would've had a heart attack of joy.

* * *

If I owned Twilight, I'd cry myself to sleep every night.

Okay, imagine that you're in my place (again, unless you're guy because that'd still be pretty strange). You just woke up from a dream about an incubus where he announced that everyone around you would eventually fall in love with you.

And Jupiter's hottest guy with the coolest hat in the universe is sitting at the foot of your bed giving you a smile like Edward Cullen's evil twin. Scratch that, Edward Cullen sucks so much that even his evil twin can't be mentioned without making me want to vomit up slugs. He gave me a smile more like Kaname Kuran's evil twin. I would say Zero Kiryu, but Ichiru wasn't all that good at psycho-maniac smiles.

Rant about vampric smiles over, that was my current situation. I was torn between throwing a pillow at him and smiling awkwardly. I decided that throwing a pillow would probably be a bit rude to someone who had shown so much hospitality to me, but at the same time I also decided that it would be fun.

So I did. And I also yelled at him a bit. It was mostly just me saying "perv" repeatedly and informing him that I was planning on throwing my pillow at him again but I had thrown it to far and couldn't reach it.

"Toki," he said, raising a finger to silence me. I decided to shut up and hear him out, though, because... I'm not sure why, actually. Oh well. "I can assure you that I only came in here because you were moaning in your sleep. Quite loudly."

"Oh. In that case, I'm sorry for lobbing a pillow at your face. And almost breaking your eardrums. Mostly the pillow thing."

I was tempted to add "can I have a hug?" but I decided against it. The pillow had left a big red mark on his face; I didn't quite think he wanted a hug.

Oh well. Paying attention to what other people want never WAS one of my first priorities. "Can I has hug?" I asked in the most stupid voice possible. For another stupid reference, I also threw in, "Me love you long time?" He looked horribly confused, even more so when I wrapped my arms around him.

"What are you doing?" he asked, half-suffocated by my oh-so-awesome presence. I mean my oh-so-awesome embrace.

Nah, I mean what I say. He was being suffocated by my awesomeness. "I'm hugging you, what does it look like?"

I let go of him because I'm pretty sure his face was turning an odd shade of purple. I know how to death hug people very effectively.

"You certainly are an odd one, aren't you?" he asked once he caught his breath and turned a more natural color.

I thought for a moment. _'What should I say?'_ In case you're wondering, my choices were "Yes", "Of course~", and "Are you calling me fat?".

I decided that perhaps I would be pushing it with the last one, so I just went with saying of course and winking. Without so much as a nod in response, he stood up. What a jerk, huh?

"Oh, I forgot to ask you," he said while standing in the doorway. "Will you join me for tea tonight?"

Oh god, he_ tea._ Of all people in the world _Blood_ was a tea-drinker. Seriously?

You see, I hate tea. With a burning passion. A burning passion so hot that it could turn the water used to make tea into a giant cloud in the kitchen. And then melt the kettle you're making it in.

In fact, my hatred for tea could beat out the sun with it's amazing heat. But how could I say no to the hot Jupitarian mafioso?

"O...okay."

"Then I'll see you later."

The smile he gave me was so going to be worth drinking boiled leaf juice. But dear god, please give me the magical powers to spill my cup without him noticing and without staining my clothes.

Now, I know that it's just going to seem like I didn't feel like telling you about the rest of the day, but I can honestly sum it up like this:

The servants made me breakfast.

One of them irritated me so I tried poking him in the eyes, which he didn't have.

He apologized and I gave him an über death hug.

I went to the bathroom.

I talked to the not-rabbit (whose name was Elliot, by the way.)

I pulled the not-rabbit's ears.

He cried, I said sorry, and then I left.

Then it was nighttime, so I went out to the garden to find Blood. I figured that gardens were nice places to have leaf-juice in a cup.

The gardens were full of roses- it was pretty and all, but it certainly didn't seem like something you would find outside of the mafia's mansion. I'm not kidding you, there had to be five hundred rose bushes.

While I was looking around I spotted something move behind one of the bushes. Most people would've probably left, seeing as they were staying at the home of a stranger, but then again most people wouldn't have screamed "perv" and thrown a pillow at their host's face.

I dropped to the ground and peeked through the branches. Blood was standing there, chatting with some girl with wacky purple hair- perhaps his girlfriend? It would make sense- even _I _thought it was a romantic setting- for him to take someone like that there. But even so, he _had_ been flirting with me the whole time I was there, so if that was his girlfriend then he would probably be in trouble.

She said something that I couldn't quite hear and his face turned red. I was deathly curious about what was going on, especially when he looked away from her and muttered something to himself. She laughed and leaned over his shoulder, then said something that made him push her away. They looked like such a great couple (which let me tell you, that sucked for me because he was the most totally überly-awesome guy EVER.).

Blood pulled a rose from the bush I was hiding behind, standing just close enough that I could hear him say something. "I don't know why, but I really like her."

At that point my whole theory about them being a couple pretty much died there. I fell to the ground, and unfortunately I learned a nice little lesson:

Plopping on the ground with chains on your skirt equals jingly sounds. And jingly sounds tend to blow your cover.

Oh _crap._

AN/ Ick... This story's going downhill. I had no clue what to do for this chapter. I might go back and remove this later though, and you know, rewrite it. I couldn't focus though because my laptop sucks and it turned "Tap to Click" on and locked it. I cannot STAND using it when it does that.

Chances are I'm just gonna use this and try to improve Chapter 6. Sorry I took so long to get this out, by the way. I went to the awesomest Christmas party ever XD Trapezoidian parties are the best~3 I got Rosario + Vampire II volume 2 (sadly I only have the first volume of season 1 XD) so I might try writing another fic about that series since the anime was pretty good. Perverted, but good. XD Btw, the word count is up to 6029~ :D


	6. Chapter 6

Hey guys, I'm back again XD I really love writing this story, although it seems to be getting worse and worse with my attempt at plot development .

I hope this chapter is more enjoyable than the last ones I've written. I just got FFXIII and FFIX, plus I've been watching Ouran HS Host Club recently (my cosplay jacket's so awesome~3 I look just like Haruhi, and ironically enough my Japanese name (which I use more than my real name) is Haru. Now all I need to do is trade in my glasses for contacts XD) so I've been pretty distracted. I was playing Heart, Clover, and Joker today though, so I've been somewhat inspired~ I've devoted my laptop to them XD (Peter's so adorable~ And I think Blood might be losing to Gray as my favorite D: XD)

/

"Toki, what are you doing here?"

This time I had stuck my head where it really didn't belong. And to tell the truth, I was really scared. Like, I woke up and Edward Cullen was in my room scared. Yes, it was that bad.  
"Well... I was... um... looking for you, and then... I saw you and I was going to go say hi... but then I saw you were with someone else so I didn't want to interrupt, and I... well, I walked a bit closer... and I tripped." I sounded like a little kid that had broken mom's fancy china.

"How much of that did you see?"

I didn't know what to do there; should I lie and probably get killed in the future, or or should I tell the truth and have my soul eaten then and there?

"Everything after you started blushing."

"And what did you hear?"

I stayed quiet when he asked that (that's pretty shocking for me, actually) and just kind of stared. He cleared his throat expectantly and I thought he was going to grow fifty feet tall and turn green. "Only the bit about you liking someone."

He turned away from me, I think trying to control his temper, and started walking. After a few steps he glanced over his shoulder towards me. "Are you coming?"

"Oh, um.. yeah." We both stayed silent for a while (it was pretty hard, but I somehow pulled it off), every so often exchanging an awkward glance. I had no clue that going to the gardens would cause such a big problem or I would have just gone and snooped through his room more instead.

Finally the silence was broken by none other than the two axe-wielding kids that I'd met when I first came to the Hatter Mansion. "Look, it's the boss and the lady~!"

"Hey, lady~!"

I had no clue how to respond at first (mostly because I was too busy staring off into space awkwardly to notice that they were there) but then I smiled. "Hi axe-carrying-children-who-I-only-met-once~!" I shouted. I decided that this day had utterly lacked in glomps, so I tackle-hugged the kid that was wearing blue for no evident reason. "I haven't seen you since the last time I saw you~!"

Okay, so if it seems like my intellegence went from five to negative sixteen, it was because I was trying to not think about what had happened. That, and I figured that a good hug might put the gatekeepers on my side.

The other kid started laughing so I'm asuming what I'd done was amusing to them. Blood smiled too. I prayed to every god I could think of that _he_ found it amusing.

The rest of the day's all a blur to me; the gatekeepers' reactions to my odd behavior, the tea party, I forget everything. But what happened afterwords- that's what's clear.

Before the tea party had begun the time had changed to noon, but shortly after it was night again. The not-rabbit and twins had walked away, leaving me and Blood alone.

"Toki, come with me."

"Why?"

"Just do it," he hissed, his eyes brimming with rage. I was more terrified now than ever before at least up to that point.

Just by watching him it became obvious how ticked off he was. And all because I'd seen him in the garden with some girl. That's what confused me the most, especially since he'd never told me that I shouldn't go there.

He took me to his room, closing the door and locking it behind us. "What were you _really_ doing in the garden?"

"I was looking for you, I swear. I heard you talking and I..."

"You decided to listen in?"

I nodded slightly, my heart pounding so loudly that he could've probably heard it. "I'm sorry... That girl with you, was she your sister?"

His eyes flew wide open when I asked that. I think I stepped on a nerve (or rather, I trampled a nerve several times and then pounded it with a very large hammer) with that comment.

"How did you know?"

"Well... At first I thought you two were lovers, but then I heard you mention liking someone else and I just kind of assumed..."

He fell silent, beginning to pace back and forth. "Blood, I'm really sorry. In my defense, I didn't know not to go to that garden."

"Even so, you've broken the rules and must be punished."

He pushed me down onto one of the sofas, sitting beside me. He moved closer, leaning over me and staring into my eyes. I backed away from him as far as I could, putting one of my hands on his shoulder in an attempt to push him back.

"Resisting is useless, Toki," he said, reaching towards my neck. His hands grabbed my throat and I let out a quiet shriek. "What a shame that I have to kill you now. I found you quite intriguing; much more interesting than the last outsider."

His grip tightened and I could hardly breathe. After a while my vision began blurring. I tried to push him away again, and when that failed I attempted to pry his hands from my neck.

"Let...go..." I choked.

He leaned closer and I flinched (as much as one who is currently being strangled could flinch). I could feel his breath on my face, opening my eyes just enough to stare into his.

Let me tell you, gazing into his deep, alluring aqua-blue eyes was enough to make me forget that he was trying to kill me for the briefest moment.

I wasn't sure why- perhaps he was more sympathetic than I'd guessed- but after a while of me staring at him with tears welling up in my eyes he released his grip. "You want to run away, don't you?" he asked, his voice deep and threatening.

"No. I don't." I can honestly say that I didn't want to at all. I didn't know why; he was pretty much a total stranger, he was the leader of the mafia, and he'd tried to kill me. Yet for some reason I didn't want to leave his side.

He placed one of his hands on my face, moving even closer still. As any girl would be, I felt pretty awkward with a super hot guy pinning me down on the couch in his room with the door locked. Just when I thought it couldn't get any weirder, though, he kissed me.

And dear god, it was überly awesome.

/AN. I actually liked this chapter (that's a shock, isn't it? XD). I would've waited a bit longer to develop Blood and Toki's relationship but Blood hardly seems like the kind of guy to wait for true love to develop slowly.

I'm sorry this chapter took so long... I've been on break from writing really, mostly working on comics and furry-related things (since I became a furry over Christmas break). I just recently got back into Heart/Clover/Joker too, so I haven't wanted to work on this much XD

Please review~


	7. Chapter 7

Hey guys, I'm glad that you enjoy my story enough to read this up to chapter 7 XD To tell the truth, I think this is the longest I've ever stayed with a story. I probably would've been finished with this chapter sooner but I had to write a book review for Final Fantasy VII: On the Way to a Smile (admittedly it was quite enjoyable XD My last book review was on Alice in the Country of Hearts XD I might do Gackt's book Jihaku for my third one, or possibly The Maiden who Travels the Planet. I love to be strange like that XD XD).

/

"Blood...?" I muttered once he'd moved away. I felt his hand on my shoulder start sliding off my sleeve.

Awkward had now become an understatement, so I did what any girl in my situation would. Okay, so I did what very few, if any, girls in my situation would do.

I flicked him in the nose.

Don't even BOTHER asking what I thought that would accomplish. It's me we're talking about here.

He flinched when I flicked him and I giggled a bit. He kissed me again and I closed my eyes. "You are far better than the other outsider," he whispered into my ear.

Suddenly there was a knock on the door. Blood stood up, turning to me. "Let's not speak to anyone about this," he said, a smile creasing his face. I half-nodded, sitting up as he opened the door. "Elliot, what is it that you need?"

The not-rabbit peeked into the room and noticed me sitting there. "I hope I'm not...interrupting anything, Blood. I just came to get those papers."

The mafioso gave him a stack of papers from his desk and sent him away, looking back at me once he'd gone. "I look forward to spending time with you like this again."

He helped me up and I nodded. "Right, I guess."

I'm sure my face was bright red at that point as I walked across the hallway into my own room. I fell back on the bed, staring up at the ceiling.

The sound of thunder outside made me jump. "Dear god, I wish that this world didn't have thunderstorms..."

Alright, so I'm sure you're thinking 'How cliché, she's brontophobic!'

Yeah, you're right. But I'm afraid of thunder and lightning, so sue me. In a bit of panic, I crawled off of the bed and hid underneath of it. I curled up in a tight ball, trying to cover my ears, but I still let out a little scream with the next crack of lightning.

In a few moments I heard someone enter the room with me, footsteps approaching the bed. "Toki, where are you?"

"I'm under here."

Blood crouched down to look at me (God, how embarrassing!) curled up like a potato. Okay, that's a bad simile, but who really cares? You're lucky I remember what a simile IS.

"What are you doing down there?"

"I'm collecting dust bunnies," I said. I jumped when the lightning struck again and hit my head off of the bottom of the bed.

"You're afraid of thunderstorms, aren't you?"

"Okay, fine, I'll admit it. I'm afraid of thunder. And dust bunnies."

"Come out of there," he said, reaching out to me.

"No way. I like it down here."

He stared at me expectantly until finally I gave up. "Fine." I took his hand and he pulled me out from under the bed. "Thanks," I muttered, brushing myself off.

He sat beside me on the bed, but just as I had begun to calm down a bit the lightning cracked again and the storm picked up even more. I immediately grabbed Blood, holding him so tightly that I swear his face turned purple again. He made a funny sound, too.

The thunder boomed again. "Okay, okay! I'm scared of chipmunks too!" I shrieked, holding him even closer. Blood didn't complain, which was shocking, because I'm loud when I'm just talking, let alone screaming.

The lights flickered and then went dark, only adding to my panic. I'm pretty sure by that point I was in tears (what a dumb thing to cry about, right? I have a story as to why I'm so scared of storms. Maybe I'll tell you on another day) with my face buried in his chest. Every time the lightning flashed outside I would screech even louder.

I'm not sure how long we sat there together, but he stayed with me until the storm had quieted. My face was red from crying for so long and I was breathing really heavily. My heart was pounding again, too, just as it had been before.

I felt terrible for making him stay with me (dear god, _I_ felt terrible? What has this world come to?). "I'm sorry... You could've just left me here. I would've been fine."

"And try to sleep through your screaming? I think that would've ben quite unpleasant, wouldn't you agree?"

I suddenly felt less bad. He stayed with me _because he couldn't sleep with my screaming?_ He could've at least LIED and said that he cared about me enough to stay!

"So the only reason you stayed was because I was wailing like that and you wouldn't be able to fall asleep?"

"That's not the only reaon. You are my guest here, after all, and it was me that brought you to Wonderland in the first place."

"Wait, what do you mean you brought me here?"

He smiled at me with another super-freaky vampire smile, this one more like Jiro Mochitsuki's smile when he was about to go on a super-Kowloon-Child-murder-spree.

"I discussed it with Nightmare shortly before your arrival. He controls everything that happens in this world, including who visits us and when."

"Okay, so you're saying it was fate that made me trip and fall in a hole?"

"Pretty much."

Oh. My. God.

Fate is _awesome._

AN/ Thanks for reading~3. This chapter wasn't as funny as the past chapters, but I'm still trying to get their relationship started XD. I'm not sure what to do with the "other outsider", AKA Alice. I'm stuck between Blood having killed her before Toki's arrival in Wonderland, her having left Wonderland, and pairing her with Julius and having her know Toki. The first one seems like it would provide for more dramatic moments, the second would kind of be balanced, and the third would probably be the most humorous.

Anywho, I was going to go deeper into Toki's whole fear of storms, but I can just tell you in the notes. One of her friends was killed during a storm on their way to her tenth birthday party, so of course she'd kind of be scarred. (That, and I'm afraid of storms, so since she's me she shares that fear XD.)


	8. Chapter 8

Hey everyone~. I'm finally getting back into this story (yayz~). Actually, I've been planning it out all day XD I might try doing a short interlude chapter sometime soon about Toki's family, but since I'm bad at third person writing that may not happen for a while XD

DISCLAIMER: Heart No Kuni No Alice is my Holy Bible. And like the Bible, although I may follow its ways, I don't own it.

/

After the storm had passed completely Blood had left me to go to sleep. Which was nice, because I was exhausted after a long night of avoiding boiled leaf juice, being strangled, and sobbing.

I pulled the blankets over my head, curling up into a ball and closing my eyes. For the first time since I'd arrived I felt kind of homesick, though. Normally my dog would curl up at the foot of my bed and my cat would crawl underneath the covers with me, and through the door I could hear my parents trying to convince my brother that staying up until one would make him tired at school the next day. Here I was alone, and the only sounds I could hear were the occasional footsteps of servants as they passed my room.

When I'd finally fallen asleep I was back in crayon-dragon-vomit land again. There was a very loud and more than somewhat irritating sound of a clock, just like last time.

"Nightmare-sama, where are you~?" I called out, looking around for him. Suddenly I felt someone tap my shoulder.

My first reaction was to spin around and punch him in the face. Which was pretty strange, even for me (especially since I had been looking for him not five seconds before).

"To...Toki... You didn't have to hit me..."

He looked like he was about to cry, so I did what any good person would do and slapped him. "Pull yourself together, Nightmare! You're a demon! No, you're better than that! You're James from flipping _SAILOR MOON_." Okay, my pep talk wasn't all the best. And I'm not even sure there's a James in Sailor Moon. Whatever.

Apparently my sensless babbling didn't have a very positive effect, because he proceeded to cry again. "I called you "sama". Isn't that good enough?"

My respect had even LESS of a positive effect. So I sat down and began poking the ground. After a few seconds of shouting at himself about how he was "the almighty me" or whatever he finally calmed down. "Are you curious as to why you were brought here?"

I nodded. "Blood said he brought me here."

Nightmare thought for a moment, gazing off into nowhere with a weird, distant look in his eyes. "That's all you need to know, for now."

"You know what, you suck. I hate you." He choked and began vomiting up blood. "Okay, you don't have to throw up blood! I was just joking!"

"Ugh..."

"Maybe you should see a doctor."

"NO! I won't go and you can't make me."

"Geez, touchy. It was only a suggestion."

"Meh. I'll let you go back to sleep now," he said, floating beside me because he was too lazy to walk. "Although your time here in Wonderland will be limited unless he finishes the transfer..."

I didn't quite hear the last bit properly, much less understood it at the time. "What'd you say?" I demanded.

"Nothing at all."

Just as I was about to punch him, he vanished. "Darn it; stupid demonic awesome powers of demonness..."

I woke up to find myself in yet another awkward situation. Only this time _I_ was the one to blame for said situation.

You see, I have this problem where I sleepwalk. And this time I sleepwalked into Blood's room.

And I decided to sleep at the foot of his bed.

Naturally, I screamed very loudly upon realizing this. I expected Blood to wake up or something, but he just made a funny moaning sound. A really funny moaning sound.

I think he was about to wake up, so I figured that opening the door and trying to sneak away was a bad idea. Then I had a great idea: I was going to just curl up and pretend to be sleeping, and my explanation would be that I tend to sleepwalk. So I'd be telling the truth, and I'd also not look like I'd been trying to cover the whole thing up.

Unfortunately, I talk to myself. Loudly. So loudly in fact that Mr. Mafia boss woke up. "Toki, what are you doing here?"

"Um... getting... revenge for yesterday?" He stared at me, either unimpressed or still sleeping. "Okay, you've broken me down. I was sleepwalking."

"Your excuse for sleeping at the foot of my bed wearing my hat and holding my cane is sleepwalking?"

"Yeah, pretty much." It feels necessary to point out that after Nightmare left I did have a dream that I was cosplaying as Blood. "See, I tend to do stuff like that when I'm not at home. I learned that because one time I stayed over at a friend's house and I woke up on the dining room table. In her neighbor's house."

"Just go back to your room," he said, sighing. As I stood up, he added, "And leave my hat and cane."

"Darn it. I was planning on keeping the hat. I look pretty gosh-darn awesome in this hat, don't I?"

"Toki."

I set the cosplay stuff on his bed and walked towards the door, still delirious. "Whoa, I didn't see you there sir!" I said to the door. "If you could just excuse me for a moment..."

It was then that I learned that people in Wonderland can make random items turn into guns at will. "Toki, get out."

Blood was obviously not a morning person either. And non-morning person plus non-morning person equals... two non-morning people. And if one of them has a gun, a person and a puddle of blood.

I kicked the door for its utter rudeness and walked out, only to trip and fall into the arms of Mr. Not-rabbit. "Oh, hello not-rabbit~."

"Miss Toki, what are you doing up so early?"

"Almost getting shot, cosplaying, sleepwalking. The usual. And you?"

"I was um... Working! Yeah, that's it..."

Seeing as he had carrot cake icing on his face, I assumed that he was raiding the fridge. "Don't worry, I won't tell on you if you don't tell on me. Then again, Blood already knows that I'm delirious. So, you'd better just not make enemies with me and show me the way to the kitchen."

He was very obedient, more like a dog than a donkey or rabbit. And it was _then_ that I learned that the Hatter mafia has a very large refridgerator.

I can't quite remember that event much, but I do know that one of the servants was nicknamed "Aido/Preston/Kotaro/Winner/Kotaro#2" (from Vampire Knight, My Sims Agents, Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok, Chibi Vampire, and Black Blood Brothers respectively. I really need a life) and that cake dissolves when you pour three gallons of milk on it.

"Toki, you really should go back to bed," Aido said, trying to start cleaning up the milky plate of melted cake. "Come with me."

Being a not-three-thirty-in-the-morning type person, I took this as an attempted luring and started panicking, enough to wake up the boss.

"Toki, what are you doing?" he demanded. I'm sure I would've felt threatened, but he was still half asleep. (He still looked pretty hot though.)

"I was watering the rhododendron."

"We don't have a rhododendron."

"Oh yeah, I was improvising. I was milking this cake."

As you can imagine, I had to help clean up the mess. And then I was sent back to bed with a table pushed in front of my door.

When it was finally the time for regular people to get up, Aido moved said table. I'm sure he would've glared at me for the mess last night if he had eyes, so I gave him a death-hug for no evident reason.

Blood was just kind of hanging out in his room, reading a very large book that would probably take me until I went to college to read (Pfft, if it took me that long I'd never finish it. I'm not going to college). "Hi Blood~." I said, sitting down on one of the überly-not-so-amazing sofas.

"Might I ask what it was you were doing in the kitchen last night, Toki?"

"I was in the kitchen last night?"

(F.Y.I., it took me two days to finally be able to recall that incident) "Yes. You were."

"I don't remember that."

"You're definitely going to be a handful," he sighed as he set the book down. "Perhaps it's time that you learn to be of use to us."

"Am I going to have to clean?"

He gave me a smile that I would compare to a vampire but don't care to try and think of a match for. "Better."

That sounded like it was going to be _fun._

AN: XD This chapter was going in a completely different direction until eating a bowl of popcorn with my sister. Cat came up with the idea for her to sleepwalk into Blood's room, and then her excursion into the kitchen . It's more random than the other chapters, but Toki's starting to develop a bit more thanks to all of the additions to her character. Once I get some artwork of her up online I'll link to it, btw. Hopefully that'll give everyone a more clear picture of this story XD


	9. Chapter 9

I was reading through all of the reviews on this story today after la clase de español. "You're wrong; There's NO building large enough to house my ego." (Kaiba from Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged). I must thank you for making my ego grow to the size of Kaiba's. Seriously, you guys rock~3

XD While I'm thanking people, I think that I should mention TheVulpineHero1. If you like Final Fantasy VII, then I highly recommend his stories. The Ballad of the Gunslinger and the Cat is my all-time favorite fanfic, and it serves as a major inspiration to my writing style. XD And without further adieu ("My name is Adieu!" (lol iCarly references are fun XD The "iStart a Fan War" episode was awesome)

"So Blood, what am I gonna get to do if I don't have to clean?"

"You're going to become a Hatter," he said, standing up.

"But my dad said that if I ever ran away and join the mafia my brother gets my stuff." It was true; he actually did tell me that once. It went something like this:

_ "Toki, just clean your room. It's a disaster!"_

_ "No. I'm going to go join the mafia."_

_ "Fine, but your brother's getting all of your things."_

_ "Nevermind."_

He laughed at this. For some reason he didn't seem to believe me, which I didn't understand at all. I mean, I'm freaking Toki Hana. How can you _not_ believe me?

The mafioso was now standing beside me, giving me a smile much like Cassandra Jill Warlock from Black Blood Brothers (okay, I know Casa's a girl, but I'm running out of vampires here!) "How sad. Unfortunately for you, though, you don't have a choice. If you're going to continue staying here, you'll have to pull your weight."

"My weight is only approximately ninety-five pounds, thank you." I glared at him, offended that he would imply that my weight would be difficult to pull. Or something like that. Actually, I really just felt like glaring.

"Even so, I'm sure you'll get used to working quite quickly."

"That's funny, Blood. I guess I can help out though; how hard can working for the mafia be?"

He grabbed his hat and cane and took me outside. It was a very bright noon. Annoyingly bright. So bright that I wanted to shoot someone repeatedly, but that's not the point. Although I did make this very clear to Blood.

He handed me a gun (I never thought anyone'd be dumb enough to do that) and explained to me that I was going to get to have a fun job. "And you'll finally get to shoot someone repeatedly," he added after teaching me how to shoot the weapon that I shouldn't have in fact been given. "Since you seem so intent upon doing that."

I was suddenly interested in this joining the mafia thing, not like I wasn't interested before; I mean, I'd get to shoot and rob people for a living! (Okay, even I'll admit that it's kind of disturbing how excited I was to kill someone.). "Like this, right?" I asked, positioning the little targeter-thingy towards a tree.

He nodded so I fired it. It was fun, getting back at nature for the evil things it'd done to me. Not that nature had ever particularly done anything bad to me, but I really enjoyed shooting that tree.

"You learn surprisingly quickly, Miss Toki."

I stared at him for a moment, completely insulted. "What exactly do you mean, "surprisingly quickly"?"

Again he gave me an über-kawaii vampire smile desu desu. I almost squeed (What? I wanted to see what it was like to sound like a fantard) with happiness. "I mean what I say."

"Meh." I was horribly unimpressed with his answer, even though that's exactly what I would've said. "Whatever; I guess it's better than being an expectantly slow learner."

"I did notice something a bit off when you were aiming, though." He came uncomfortably close, standing behind me and grabbing my hand that was currently holding the gun. "Like this." He showed me how to properly hold the weapon when I fired, aiming it more precisely at my target.

I felt awkward with him holding me like that. I think, yet again, that most girls would. "Blood, you're invading my personal bubble," I said after about twenty seconds of me actually understanding the new concept and no longer needing him to guide me so directly.

He didn't answer me at first, still kind of staring off into the distance. "Blood? Hellooo?" I waved my hand in his face and he finally looked down at me. "Did you forget what you were doing?"

"You seem to have that effect on me. Perhaps it's because you're an oustider."

Again with the "outsider" thing. I wasn't sure what he meant by that, but I didn't bother asking because I was too busy trying not to spaz with joy because he was still holding me closely.

"Speaking of which," he continued, "I have a gift for you. Once night falls, will you join me in my room?"

Last time I joined him in his room he strangled me half to death and then provided for a very awkward event that seemed like something straight out of an otome dating sim. I had to use my head here.

As I'm sure you can assume by now I said yes. Although I was crossing my fingers that I wouldn't end up pinned to the couch again.

"Boss~! Lady~!"

Blood looked behind us to find the two gatekeepers and the not-rabbit. "Is the lady going with us?" the red-wearing twin asked. I glared at him.

"Me llamo Toki, no me llamo "lady"." I was in Mexico, after all. I figured that maybe saying it in their native language would help them.

"Llamas?" his brother asked, horribly confused. I shook my head.

"Nevermind."

"On that note, yes, Miss Toki will be accompanying us today."

At first I hoped I was accompanying them to somewhere fun, but then I realized _why_ he had taught me how to use the gun. "Dear god, do I get to shoot people?" I asked in (morbid) excitement.

He nodded. "Welcome to the Hatter Family, Toki Hana."

Oh my dear god. I was a member of the mafia. And I was going to get to kill people.

This was going to be _epic._

/AN. This will be fun XD I love writing this story so much. I feel like I can really pour myself in Toki~. I should write Empire of Sin (my original story, I believe I have it on my fictionpress page under the same Pen name) and/or Fate (another of my stories, which I am currently making an animated movie trailer for) for Luna-sama XD But I just can't seem to get into those ;; Which is sad because Sin is my favorite of my characters, and besides Haru and Toki he's my favorite persona. ~3 I need to work on my cosplay for him so I'm ready for Luna's b-day party XD XD

Enough ranting XD Yet again, thanks so much to everyone who has reviewed, and remember that I only bite those who irritate me~ XD

DISCLAIMER: I don't own ~Wonderful Wonder World~, although I do own the pudding in my refrigerator. SO TAKE THAT, QUINROSE!


	10. Chapter 10

/Hey guys~3 Wow, chapter 10 already! I'm surprised! XD Thanks so much to all of the loyal readers of this story! :)

To celebrate, you get a bonus chapter-insert before the continuation (God, I hate that word .) of the plot.

Bonus Chapter 1

I sighed, falling back on my bed. I was exhausted after a long day of entertaining Dee and Dum. Which let me tell you is more tiring than it may first seem. And I'm pretty it seems pretty tiring at first.

I closed my eyes, and when I opened them I was again in Blood's room. "God, sleepwalking's annoying," I muttered to myself slightly quieter than usual. (I had finally learned that talking loudly to yourself wakes people up.)

Last time I'd woken up in Blood's room I had been on the couch. I had been in many odd places when sleepwalking into his room; the floor beside his bed, on his desk, on the couch. And now I had provided myself with an even MORE awkward situation.

I was curled up beside him on his bed, so close that his hair brushed my face. When I realized this I screamed. Very loudly.

Apparently I was like a very effective alarm clock going off in your ear, because Blood jumped and much to my amusement fell onto the floor. "Toki? What're you doing in here?"

"I was sleepwalking again."

"And why, might I ask, where you screaming in my ear?"

"I'm sure you'd be freaked out too if you woke up in someone else's bed right beside them. And no offense, but you're not exactly the most comfortable person to be alone with, especially after yesterday." (If you're wondering what happened yesterday, it was a bit more than PG-13 rated. Hopefully that helps you. Because I really don't want to go into detail.)

"Are you saying that you don't enjoy my company?" he asked, pulling himself up.

"Of course I'm not. But still." My face was by now bright red, I'm sure.

He sat back down on the bed beside me, leaning closer and putting his hand on my face. "You're so cute when you blush, you know."

"I could say the same about you." The only thing that made him even hotter than normal was when he was blushing. It was so cute~!

He kissed me and I closed my eyes. "Blood~," I said, pulling back. He stared at me for a moment. "You know, this is only going to make everything more awkward when I sleepwalk."

"You'll get used to it."

/Hooray for random story inserts XD I hope you enjoyed that~ As for the bit more than PG-13 rated thing, I am 13 so I don't in fact want to go into detail. And this story's only rated T+, so I can't make it too graphic. So I would really hope that helps you XD XD Anyway, on to the actual story~.

I clung to Blood's side like a lost little kid as we waked to the destination. I held my gun tightly, actually somewhat afraid of what was coming up; don't lie, you would be scared of going off to battle with the mafia too. I think he could tell I was afraid, though. Or rather, it was horribly obvious.

"Don't worry, Toki," he said, smiling at me. This smile was friendly; very inviting, like Ichijou from Vampire Knight. He pulled me closer and I returned his smile.

"Right. This'll be fun."

"That's the spirit~!" Elliot said, leaning over me and wrapping his arm around Blood's neck.

Blood sighed. I couldn't help but laugh at them; they were pretty close friends for being polar opposites (wow, I used a smart-sounding phrase!).

Elliot laughed too, but after a few minutes Blood silenced us. He glanced back at the servants that had accompanied us, calling Aido over to us. "Yes sir?"

"I want you to keep an eye on Toki while we're fighting. Make sure that she doesn't get hurt, okay?"

He nodded (somewhat reluctantly. How rude.). "Well then, let's go settle this with those Amusement Par goons," the not-rabbit said, raising his gun in the air. "I've been wanting to test this baby out for a while now!" I was a bit unsettled when they mentioned the Amusement Park. Boris had helped me out before, so I was kind of wary about killing his comrades. But even so, if I was going to be a Hatter I figured that I should probably do what I'm told.

Blood and Elliot led the way, Dee and Dum right behind them. I assumed that they weren't the kind of people for an ambush, so they were probably going to go greet their enemies openly. That sounded fun, and I hoped that one day I would actually get to be there to watch.

It wasn't long before we heard gunshots. Aido pulled out his überly-awesome machine gun, so I grabbed my weapon too. "So we just shoot anybody and everybody?" I asked. "Besides friends?"

He nodded and I glanced around. The conflict had already erupted into a huge battle. But that's when I lost all motivation. None of them were and/or resembled Jeffery from science class. And I doubted that any of them were named Todd.

So, to quickly sum up the battle, I didn't shoot anybody. In fact, I had so little motivation that Aido had to drag me off of the battlefield. But really, why would I bother killing them if they weren't Jeffery or named Todd?

"Toki, what were you doing out there?" Blood asked once the battle had ended. We were on our way back to the Hatter Mansion, everyone but me sprinkled with blood.

"Not much. I didn't have motivation."

"I believe your 'motivation' should have been that you were told how to act on the field."

"Yeah, but that didn't work for me."

He thought for a moment. "Perhaps you're not cut out for this job."

I frowned, staring at him with wide eyes. "Does this mean I have to clean?"

He nodded and I was horribly unjoyous. If that's a word.

Anyway, I was unjoyous because for all 17 and ½ years I've been alive, I had never cleaned. Sure I'd picked up my clothes a few times, but never anything big. So this was also going to be a completely new concept for me.

"Aido will be your mentor," he added, much to Aido's displeasure.

"What? Sir, why me?"

I was insulted, especially based on Blood's amused expression. Which made me think that he was in fact getting back at Aido for something by making him teach me.

"Are you saying that you don't want to teach me?"  
With a sigh, he responded, "No, no, Miss Toki. I'm... _honored_ to be your new mentor."

He took me to the kitchen, deciding that that would be a good place to start. He handed me a bottle of cleaning stuff that you'd die if you ate (I think he wanted me to eat it at that point, because I hadn't shut up the whole time I was with him).

"So I just spray this on random things and wipe them off?"

"That would be the idea, Miss Toki."

So I began this 'cleaning' activity. I can't believe I hadn't done this before; it was so fun! Unfortunately for Aido, I had coated the floor in the soap and he kept falling over. "Hey Aido, do you think if I sprayed your face with this stuff and scrubbed hard enough you'd grow eyes?"

"How is that question relevant? Or logical?"

"It isn't~! I just wanted to ask."

He did a face-palm and groaned. And then I heard someone fall over.

"Oh, hi Blood. You might want to watch your step. It's a bit slippery in here."

As you can probably imagine, I wasn't allowed to clean anymore.

The next cycle was the worst job of all, in my opinion. I was getting dizzy just looking at all of the random crap piled up on the shelves, not to mention the smell.

Now, if you're wondering where I was, it wasn't the smelly old library down the street. Luckily Blood had some kindness in his heart and didn't make me go there. Even if I had nearly broken his back, gotten myself killed on his account, and almost caused him to break his leg.

I was in a place that was pretty close to the terribleness of the library, though. The _grocery store._

Now I'm sure you're curious as to how I can screw up a trip to buy food. But it's me, so it's obvious that it was a simple task.

"Aidoo, this list is so boorringg!" I said, glaring at the slip of paper in my hand.

"Yes, well we only need a few things, so this list isn't particulary long."

"See, there's no chocolate on this list." I pointed at the paper now, unimpressed with the utter lack of candy. All it said was milk, bread, and eggs. "Seriously, who comes to the store and just buys milk, bread and eggs?"

"Evidently, I do."

"Pfft. You don't count. You don't even have eyes."

"I hardly see why that matters," he muttered indignantly. "In any case, let's just hurry up and get home."

"Meh. This job requires too much effort. I have no motivation."

He walked off, leaving me behind. I wasn't sure if that was accidental or if he just made it look like he'd just spaced out. Either way, I was happy to be away from him for a bit. He was so boring, I didn't feel like being around him.

Unfortunately the store was relatively small, so when I knocked over an entire shelf of canned goods he noticed. "Miss Toki!" the faceless guy hissed, glaring at me in his own, special non-glaring type way that could've been taken as a threatening look based on his eyebrows which technically shouldn't be called eyebrows in this case because he doesn't have eyes for them to be browing. If that made any sense. Okay, basically if he had eyes, I know he'd have been glaring.

Even more unfortunately, said cans had fallen on top of me. Needless to say, I was banned from shopping by Blood. And I was also banned from that grocery store for the rest of eternity and then some.

"Toki, I know that you can't truly be this useless," Blood said, staring up at me from his paperwork.

"I never really was all that helpful. I don't want to overstay my welcome though." Then I did something horribly out of character. "If you can show me the way I can go back home. I mean, Mexico's not THAT far from Pittsburgh. Probably."

"That's not necessary. And although I'm not sure exactly where these places you're talking about are, I doubt that walking there would be very enjoyable."

"To me, walking across the street is unenjoyable. But if I'm going to be in the way, I don't want to bug the Hatters."

He looked back down at the papers for a moment. "Why don't you go back to your room for a while? I'll think of something for you to do."

For the first time since I accidently sneezed in my cat's face three years ago I actually felt bad. I tried shaking the thought to the back of my head though, and actually listened for once.

I fell back on the bed, closing my eyes for a minute. Unfortunately (wow, there's a lot of non-fortune-ish things happening to me, huh?) that minute turned into... longer than a minute.

I found myself in crayon-world, only I couldn't hear the loud, ticking theme music of Nightmare this time. He didn't say my name like the ominious voice that he had been for a brief thirty seconds of me knowing him. And I knew he wasn't there when I called out "Sama" and he didn't respond.

Someone else did though, and I began wondering why I had so many random people showing up in my dreams. "How strange, that you would call someone you've yet to meet "Sama"."

"I can honestly say I was not expecting a girl to answer."

Yes, that's right. I finally introduced a character that was not in fact a super-hot guy.

She was in fact a strange looking young girl, probably only about thirteen years old. By strange-looking, I mean she was wearing a black joker hat, a black and gray jacket-type-thing, a black undershirt, and a red and black striped skirt. Plus a little white mask on her belt and a black eyepatch with a yellow eye drawn on it covering the only one of her eyes visible through her crimson hair. "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Joker- Gray Joker to be exact."

"Gray Joker, huh? Odd name. I'm To-"

"You're Toki Hana, correct?"

"Um, yeah. How'd you know that?"

"I have my ways. I've come here to warn you, in fact, Toki. You can't stay here in Wonderland."

I had no idea what she was talking about; even if I was having a bit of trouble finding a way to help out the Hatters, Blood didn't seem like he was going to kick me out. Especially since he'd said he was the one that brought me there in the first place.

"Why not?"

"Because, Toki. You aren't one of us. You don't belong here. Sadly I don't have time to explain it to you; my brothers and I will return soon enough, though. Until then." She waved and started walking, leaving me behind to ponder her cryptic message alone. At that time I was thinking something alone the lines of, _'What the flipping fudgecakes just happened? Did a little girl just tell me to screw off?'_ Which I'm pretty sure is in fact what happened.

When I woke up (finally in my own room with nobody else in there) I started thinking (dear god, my personality changed completely here!). And that's when I came up with an idea to finally help out the Hatters a bit.

All I needed to do was track down a lizard.

AN/ This chapter was considerably longer than the others XD Hopefully you enjoyed it, I certainly found it quite fun to write. In case you're wondering, the current word count (minus the bonus chapter-insert and notes) is up to 12444 words. I would also like to say happy birthday to Luna~ I'll have to work on Empire of Sin and Fate for her XD Gray Joker was my first H/C/JNKNA fan character, so I figured that she'd fit nicely into this story. I probably could've put a better description of her, but I haven't actually drawn her yet XD I spent most of my time on the computer reading VG Cats (which is an awesome comic) and trying to learn how to play "Mononoke Hime" using Synthesia (Mononoke Hime is the theme from the Studio Ghibli movie under the same Japanese title, or Princess Mononoke in English. It's a really good movie, especially if you're a wolf fan like me. Synthesia is a computer program resembling Guitar Hero where you can use a midi imput device or your keyboard to play digital midi music files XD) so I didn't get around to designing her ^^'

Reviews are appreciated~3


	11. Chapter 11

Hey guys XD I started writing Empire of Sin somewhat, so I apologize if this takes a bit longer to update ^^; Plus me and Luna finally came up with a plot for our collab Wonderful Wonder World fic~

Disclaimer: I own this. That's why I'm writing a _fanfic_ for it. :|

I snuck out of the Hatter Mansion pretty ninja-like if I do say so myself. No one saw me as I ducked into the bushes outside of the gates, and I was relatively sure that I remembered my way to Clover Tower. Nothing could have possibly gone wrong.

Until I ran into Ace. "Oh!"

I realized after I had chosen my hiding place that it had already been taken. "You! What are you doing here?" I hissed, glaring at him for no particular reason.

"Oh, I must've gotten lost. Who are you, anyway? My name's Ace; I'm a knight at Heart Castle!"

I learned quickly that Ace was a total moron. "I'm Toki, and I'm trying to be a ninja so if you'd just excuse me I have business to attend to at Clover Tower."

"You're going to Clover Tower too? We should go together then!"

"If you were going there then why are you at the Hatter Mansion?"

"This is the Mad Hatter's territory?" he asked. He then proceeded to laugh in the most annoying manner possible- the most horrid laugh you can imagine. A laugh so horrible that it makes you want to stab yourself with a fork, tear a hole in your stomach, and eat your own innards like spaghetti (as my friend would say). "I could've sworn this was the way to Clover Tower!"

"No. It's not, actually."

"There must be a shortcut through here then!"

"No. There isn't."

I grabbed his hand because he started to continue towards the Hatter Mansion. "This way, genuis."

"Hahaha, sorry."

Dear god, _why did I get stuck with this moron?_

I had to practically drag him behind me, which wasn't fun because he was considerably heavier than I was capable of pulling. And to make matters worse, he had somehow managed to screw up my oh-so-great sense of direction and we ended up not in the wintery place but in what I assumed was spring. And then it was night time, as if the gods hadn't tortured me enough.

Ace stopped and pulled out a random tent out of nowhere. I didn't ask where because I'd learned that questioning such things was stupid in Wonderland.

"Why did you set up your tent?" I asked, completely disrgarding the fact that questioning things of that nature was also stupid in Wonderland.

"Night time's dangerous, so we should rest for the time being."

"Meh. I'm going to keep going."

I stuck to that decision until I heard a wolf howling and decided that perhaps sleeping in a relatively small tent with some random hot guy with an annoying laugh would be better than having my face eaten. I sat in the top left corner (or the top right corner if you were facing the opposite direction of me), as far from he-who-had-no-sense-of-direction-whatsoever-and-should've-gone-and-jumped-off-a-cliff as possible. "Do you want some tea?" he asked, pulling out a random canister of the vile-smelling leaf juice.

"No way. Tea's gross."

I was horribly curious as to where he was keeping all this stuff, especially when he pulled out some blankets too. "You're an outsider, aren't you?" he asked, starting to take off his coat.

"A what?"

"You aren't from Wonderland."

"Nope, I'm from Ohio. Well, Pennsylvania technically, but technicalities are stupid." Naturally I looked at him when I answered, which was kind of awkward because he was undressing in the corner.

"Watching me undress?" he asked with a laugh and weird vampric smile best compared to Blood's own vampire-smiles.

"Shut up and stop stripping. I can and will steal this tent from you and sacrifice you to the wolves."

"Hahahaha~, I'm just taking off my coat, anyway."

"Good. I've had enough awkward moments already."

After I said that I guess he really wanted to provide me with another awkward moment, because he tackled me and pinned me to the ground. I was about to scream "perv!" at the top of my lungs, but he pressed his face to my chest and I was too busy spazzing.

"This sound in your chest, it makes me envy you."

"What're you talking about, you psychopath?"

"Your heartbeat."

Holy beep on a sandwich with a side of beep. What the heck was this guy rattling off about?

He removed his face from where it shouldn't have been in the first place and looked at me. "Listen to the sound in my own chest. You'll understand then."

"No way. I'm leaving."

The wolves decided that they wanted to remind me of them and howled again. "Never mind. I value my face. But I swear, if you do anything to me while I'm sleeping I will stab you in the face and gouge out your brain with a spoon.'

He laughed again. "Goodnight, Toki."

I woke up to find that I had been sleepwalking again. And that I decided to use Ace as my pillow. "DEAR GACKT!" I screeched, so loudly that I think Blood could've heard me.

"Wha...? Toki, what're you doing?" Ace sat up, rubbing his eyes. "I thought you weren't interested in me," he said with a smile.

"I'm not; I tend to sleepwalk."  
"Hahahaha~, what an odd excuse."

"Hahahaha~, what an annoying laugh."

As you can imagine, the rest of my epic journey to Clover Tower wasn't very fun. The knight wouldn't stop teasing me about our little incident, and I punched him a few times. I never thought that I'd be so happy to see snow.

"God, it's cold here," I said, trembling from the lack of heat that my über-epic emo punkness provided me with.

"Take my coat."

I was surprised that Ace would offer his coat to me, especially since I spent most of the day punching him. I assumed that as a knight he did have some morals, even if the others were a bit questionable. "Um... Thanks," I said, putting on the bright red coat. It was about sixteen sizes too big, but it was much warmer than what I was already wearing.

It didn't take long to reach the tower once we'd come to the edge of the territory. "So, what're you coming here for?" I asked, trying to create small talk to distract myself from the overall awkwardness that silence ensued.

"I came to see my friend Julius. What about you?"

"I wanted to talk to the lizard-guy; Gray, I think."

Ace seemed puzzled by this for some reason. Or rather, infuriated by this."Why would you want to talk to him?"

"I've got something I wanted to ask him about."

He didn't say anything more, and for once in my life I kept my mouth shut. I only spoke again once we'd reached the tower. "Thanks, Ace," I said, taking off his coat again. "I'll see you around."

He nodded and walked off in what was more than likely the wrong direction to go find his friend. "Ah, Miss Toki. Welcome."

I recognized the über-epic voice of Nightmare's servant immediately. "Hi. Gray, right?" He nodded.

"Are you here to see Nightmare-sama?"  
"Nope. I'm here to see you, actually."

He seemed horribly confused, his lizard-like yellow eyes brimming with curiosity. "I have a... _favor_ to ask of you."

I told him my plan and he nodded. "We'll see what we can do."

AN/ Hahahaha~, this chapter was fun. I made several references in this chapter, so I'll just cite my sources:

Sleeping in a tent with Ace and him listening to Toki's heart- Heart No Kuni No Alice manga Vol. 2 (chapter 3, I think?)

Holy beep on a sandwhich with a side of beep- Yu-Gi-Oh: The Abridged Series (Tristen~ XD "My voice gives me super strength!")

Dear Gackt- I tend to scream that a lot. Gackt is the most amazingly cute Japanese singer ever and you should all totally go listen to him because he's amazing XD I watch his filmography (Red) almost every night XD He and Hyde are what made Moon Child such an amazing movie. When I heard his song Redemption in the credits for Dirge of Cerberus I immediately fell in love with Gackt's music, and I love L'Arc~En~Ciel, who I'd heard in AlliKatNya's "The Black Rose" AMV and in Fullmetal Alchemist XD So just throw in vampires and a few drugged pizzas and you've got an awesome moive XD

Eating your innards like spaghetti- That one goes to Luna. I forget who she was talking about though XD

lolz Enough ranting XD Thanks for reading~3


	12. Chapter 12

I was so happy when I checked my email~3 I updated this story with the last chapters during Period 3 and checked my email after school and already had THREE reviews! :D That combined with the fact that the lowest score I got on mid-terms was 97% (on the advanced version of the civics test, which was supposed to be the hardest out of all of them. Without essays factored in XD)~

"Toki, what are you doing in my roo- what did you do?"

I turned my attention to Blood, smiling innocently. "I'm organizing your bookshelf for you."

Let's rewind a bit. Remember how I went to Clover Tower to talk to Gray? I bet you're wondering how that went, huh?

Well, it was something like this:

"I want you to help me become... helpful."

"What exactly do you mean?"

"You're a good servant. Teach me how to not be so useless."

So he did. He gave me several nice little pointers on how to make life for your master/Blood Dupre easier.

Unfortunately that backfired on me. I knew Blood liked reading, and his books were a total mess, but sadly I lack both A.) patience and B.) organization. So I pretty much just screwed things up worse.

I expected Blood to pull out his gun when he saw the entire contents of his bookshelf scattered around on the floor, but much to my surprise he sat down beside me. "I appreciate your effort, Toki, but there's really no need to do such things for me."

"Yeah..."

He smiled, this time pretty much incomparable to any anime vampires I know. Maybe Kotaro Mochitsuki. It was cute though.

"You're blushing," he pointed out, which probably made me blush more. I mean, how embarrassing is it when somebody tells you that you look embarrassed?

"I'm sorry." I said this in the best sarcastic voice I could (dear god I'm gonna say it...) muster (dear god I can't believe I used the word "muster"... shudder...) for no evidently explained reason, which amused him.

"Where were you last night, by the way? I asked you to come see me."

"Oh yeah... I was with some weirdo named Ace. He got me lost on my way to Clover Tower."

Blood's eyes widened when I said this. "Stay away from the heart knight," he warned. Not that I wanted to be around said heart knight ever again.

"I was planning on it. God, that guy's annoying. Something he said's been kind of worrying me though. He said he was jealous of my heartbeat; is he like a robot or something?"

The mafia boss was silent- which only added to my worriedness- for a bit. "You'll learn soon enough."

"By the end of next April you will wake from this dream, Toki. Do not trouble yourself with the ways of this world."

I knew that the voices in my head had spoken this to me and me alone, but as to why I had no idea. I was tempted to ask Blood what that girl had meant earlier, but at the same time I didn't want to know. I figured that it was just a random dream. Plus, I was in a coma so weird stuff wasn't all that strange of an occurrence.

Blood showed me how to put the books back on the shelf, organizing them alphabetically by the author. It was really nice just getting to spend time with him like that, even if I had to be working.

"So what was it that you wanted me to come here for last night, anyway?" I asked once we'd finished, shortly after the cycle had changed back to midnight.

"I almost forgot about that." He stood up and held out his hand, helping me to my feet. "Come with me."

"Um... okay."

I was horribly tired- I hadn't slept very well when I was with Ace or when that weirdo came and ranted to me- and I spent most of the walk leaning against Blood's shoulder. He held my hand tightly and I couldn't help but smile.

When we stopped, though, I was scared. We were in Blood's rose garden- where I had seen him with his sister. And after I had seen him last time he tried to kill me.

"Toki, is something wrong?" He stared at me and I realized that I had become horribly tense. That and I was shaking violently. But that's unimportant.

"Well, last time I came here you tried strangling me to death."

I felt his hand run through my hair soothingly. "And that was a huge mistake." He said that in the most überly sweet voice ever, which made me completely forget that my stomach was doing gymnastics. I'm pretty sure my heart sounded more like a nuclear bomb than doki-doki at that point.

He looked down at me with his deep, sparkling, beautiful eyes, leaning closer to me. I felt him put his hand on my heart, and I moved closer.

I closed my eyes and he kissed me. I can say with confidence it was better than when he pinned me to the couch before.

"And who is this, Blood?"

We both turned to face our company, and I quickly realized that she looked familiar. I couldn't quite put my finger on it though.

"This is Toki, Vivaldi. Toki, this is my older sister, the Queen of Hearts."

"I'm, um... pleased to meet you."

I don't think any girls in Wonderland looked normal; she had curled purple hair and a dress that was overloaded with hearts.

I would tell you about the rest of our time in the garden, but I was way to focused on the kiss I'd shared with Blood to pay attention to anything. All I really got was that they were taken from their family as kids and forced to take over as the leaders of Heart Castle and the Hatter Mafia and they killed anyone who knew besides their parents. So apparently I was privileged to get to know their secret and not die.

Blood took me back to my room after a while, sitting down on my bed beside me. "You should get some sleep, Toki."

"Yeah." I curled up under the blankets, staring at him for a moment.

"Goodnight." He ran his fingers through my hair and kissed me on the cheek before standing up.

"Goodnight." I watched the mafioso as he walked out of the room before closing my eyes and drifting into sleep. Surprisingly enough I didn't have any weird dreams.

But I did wake up to something pretty weird.

And by pretty weird, I mean very weird.

/Meh to this chapter XD It's not my favorite, but it's something. I like how Blood and Toki's relationship is playing out (too bad Aido's beating Blood as favorite character XD jk, but pretty close)~3

The only thing is, when I'm talking about my story Empire of Sin I always call Toya "Toki" XD And Toki happens to be Toya's best friend. So I confuse myself a lot XD XD

Word count so far:

22222222222222222222222222222ࠀ2 2 2ි2ส2 2 2 2ྸ2ᅌ2ፆ2 2ᑒ2ᖄ2 2ំ2 2ᦠ2ᬂ2 2 2 2 2⃜2∖2⋨2⌆2ⓐ2 2 2⟐2⨐2⬰2Ⱒ2ⱘ2ⵞ2ⷺ2 2⼾2㊆2㍬2㏸2㒺2㘄2㙢2㚜2㚤2㚴2㚶2㡌2㦞2㧆2


	13. Chapter 13

Sorry this took so long ^^; I haven't worked on it much recently… I actually read a book (GASP! It doesn't count though because it was just the Vampire Knight fan guide) and I got vol. 5 of HNKNA. Now all I need are 3,4, and 6~3 Now I'm reading the Complete Idiot's Guide to Wicca and Witchcraft, so I may or may not be distracted for a while XD XD

Okay, whatever weird ideas you came up with for the situation I was in just give up on now. Because you're wrong. You're definitely wrong.

In all honesty, nothing about anything was weird, at least in comparison to the rest of my mornings in Wonderland. I honestly just wanted to see if you got all excited. Don't lie; I know you were expecting something crazy.

Unfortunately as I went to sit up I realized that my stomach felt like I had just eaten a jar of worms (I… I don't know that from experience. Not at all. Okay, it was first grade and it was a dare, what was I supposed to do?) and I gagged. "Dear Gackt…" I groaned. It took me about ten minutes to stand up without vomiting and then I made a mad dash for the bathroom. I deposited the contents of my stomach into the toilet and moaned.

Blood happened to be walking by and saw me. "Toki?" he asked, kneeling next to me in the bathroom. "Do you feel alright?"

"Yeah," I muttered throwing up again. "For a pile of crap, that is. Just making sure that new toilet bowl cleaner was working. My insides are looking pretty good too- you really have to keep an eye on that."

Seriously? What. The. Heck. _Are you feeling alright?_ I began worrying about his mental stability more than I'd worried about my own. "You know, there're a lot of better questions you could've asked there. Like, 'Do you want me to hold your hair back for you?' or 'Do you want me to get a doctor?'. Or even 'Do you want some tuna melt?'"

I threw up again and he looked kind of sick himself. "I'll have Elliot call the doctor for you."

The not-rabbit walked by as he said that. I was beginning to think that he came when he heard his name mentioned like a dog. "What am I doing?"

"Could you get a doctor to come look at Miss Toki?"

I looked up at him. "Do you want to see my stomach acid first? It's looking really pretty this morning."

"No… thank you. I'll get right on it, then."

After he left I vomited again. Blood was looking about as ill as I was and somewhat reluctantly pulled my hair back for me. "Thanks for sitting here with me. You look like you're gonna puke too."

"I'm just a bit squeamish, that's all," he defended. Which meant 'Yeah, I think I'm going to' in Blood Dupre-speak.

Once I was relatively confident that anything else that came up was going to be a vital organ and I'd die anyway I tried standing up. Blood caught me when I fell back and smiled. "You're not in much condition to be stumbling around." He picked me up, much to my confusion.

I'm sure that if my face wasn't red already I would've blushed. He put me in his room instead of my own, which would've made me blush more and sat next to me on the bed, running his hand through my hair.

Elliot came back with the doctor (who didn't have a face, so I was kind of freaked out by him), who told me to take some weird medicine stuff. I sniffed it suspiciously and handed it to Blood. "It smells gross."

He sighed and pulled the little cup on the cap off, shaking the bottle. "You're so helpless sometimes, Toki," he muttered with a slight smile.

"I know."

He poured what I _really_ hoped was the right dosage into the cup and gave it to me. "I'm not _drinking_ it for you, too."

I (very reluctantly) drank the medicine and in a few minutes I was out like the people at my parent's house for a party when I had my obsession with fake blood and Barbie dolls. If that comparison makes sense.

I was kind of hoping to see Nightmare so I could have a turn at vomiting on his shoe, but I couldn't remember any of my dreams when I woke up. The Mafioso was sitting at his desk signing papers, but as soon as I opened my eyes he was at my side.

"How are you feeling?"

"Slightly less like my insides want to be on my outside." He fixed the blankets, which I hadn't even realized were covering me.

"The doctor said you were running a high fever. Are you cold?"

"Yeah."

He stayed beside me until I fell asleep again, which had I not been in agony would've made me scream "SQUEE~3!" like a hyper fantard. Which I kind of was. A bit.

Me sleeping isn't the most exciting story, so I'll take the cheater's way out like I always do and say this:

I woke up, took some more medicine stuff, and slept again.

In about three cycles the medicine started to work pretty well and I started following Aido around because Blood left.

Blood came back and I hugged him randomly just to see if his face would turn red.

"Toki, what're you doing?" he asked, his face bright red as I had expected it to be.

"Hugging you, stupid. I was so bored with Aido."

"I see that you've recovered."

"Yep~! I'm still not gonna eat anything random, but I'm feeling much better."

"Well then, will you accompany me in my room tonight?"

AN I'm leaving it at that because I have to go to school. Cliffhanger much? XD Please review~


	14. Chapter 14

Hello all~ I'm gonna try to get back into updating this more often again XD Thanks to everyone who's reviewed thus far, and a special thanks to KuroTenshiAkuma, who gave me a very detailed and helpful review last chapter! :)

"Um… Okay." I smiled and my face looked like it did when I was sick again.

"Ah yes, that reminds me," he said, gesturing for the servants with him to leave. "I thought of one last job for you to try."

Oh god, here we go again. I hoped that my job would be as fun as the others, but I also hoped that I would be competent enough to actually do it. "What is it this time? Gardening?"

"No, you're going to help the gatekeepers."

"Those weird twins?"

"Yes. Dee and Dum slack off more than they actually work, so we need someone else to work watch the gates."

"Sounds fun, I guess."

I followed him out to the entrance of the Hatter Mansion, where I was surprised to see that the twins were actually doing their jobs for once. "Hey guys," I greeted, yawning as the warm sunlight hit my face.

"Brother, it's the lady~!"

"I'm better than that. I'm not just THE lady, I'm…. Toki? I guess?"

"Miss Toki will be working with you two, and I expect that you will be respectful to her?" Blood said, raising an eyebrow and giving them a glare that said "hint hint, my cane is a machine gun".

"Okay boss~!"

Dee walked over to me and grabbed my arm enthusiastically, dragging me to the front of the gate. He said some stuff I didn't care about, told me not to let anyone through, mentioned Ace and the word idiot (which were synonymous, so I don't know why he had to say both), gave me a hat that looked like theirs only black, gave me the rest of their uniform in black and grey, and handed me a giant axe. Which, by the way, I DID care about. A lot. I loved it like a brother, only not really (as my friend would always say. I quote her a lot, huh? She's a fun person though).

"You understand?"

"Uh… Sure. I hit people that try to come through the gate without invitation with the axe, right?"

"Yeah."

"Well then! This sounds fun. I'm gonna be like your older brother. I guess."

"Elder Brother~!" Dum hugged me and Blood glared at him (jealous~).

"You will not refer to her as your brother."

"Elder Sister-Brother!"

"Thanks Blood. Now I don't even get a specific gender. But I do feel kind of special; I mean, I'm an elder sister AND brother~! Thanks guys~." They smiled, happy that I approved of my new name.

And so I became known as the twins' "elder-sister-brother". In case you're wondering, I did good with the whole "gatekeeping" thing. In fact, I was better than my mentors, who about halfway through went to go do something else.

Blood came back to check on me after a few hours, once it had changed to evening and back to noon. I was leaning against the gate all cool-like, holding my uberly awesome axe-that-was-not-so-much-like-a-brother on my shoulder. I must say I probably looked pretty amazing.

"So, do you think you can handle keeping this job?" he asked, as though the answer would be no. Pfft, he didn't know me at all- there was no work involved and I got to carry an axe that was bigger than me.

"Yes I do. It's actually quite fun." He smiled, which of course made me smile because who wouldn't if a hot mafia boss with the world's best hat who happened to live on Jupiter smiled at them.

"That's wonderful news. I'm afraid I have quite a bit of work to be doing, so I'll be on my way."

I stared at him for a minute. "So... is the deal still on for tonight...?" I asked quietly, immediately regretting it deep down inside because it sounded kind of weird when spoken.

"Unless you've made other plans."

He walked off, and I remembered that he had awesome coattails. Not that that was relevant, but hey, why not point it out? I really want you to feel like you're part of the story.

So, Blood and his coattails left me at the gate, and impatiently I waited until the twins came back. "Hey look, elder-sister-brother hasn't ditched yet!"

"Why not~? Did the boss yell at you?"

"No, the boss only gets mad at little slackers like you two," I said, narrowing my eyes and smiling at them. "So I'm just going to tell him that you weren't here and I'll be the only one getting paid."

They both looked kind of sad that I had already turned on them. I suppose most people didn't dare to threaten two psychopathic children with giant axes, but I was a psychopathic teenager with an axe just as gigantic, so why not?

"You're mean, elder-sister-brother~!"

I smiled. "You two are so gullible. Like _I_ would actually care to remember to tell Blood that you two weren't here the whole time? Pfft~."

They seemed unimpressed. I think I stopped making sense after the first bit there, but oh well. It could be worse; I could be counting poles on the gate (there are 57, by the way. According to um…. A very reliable source. Yeah, that's it…).

Then came the half-dreaded, half-joyously awaited nighttime. "Well guys… I'm off." I walked away, leaving the twins and (sadly) my axe behind.

I poked my head in Blood's room, kind of hoping just a bit that he wasn't there. "Toki, please come in."

He was at his desk with his hat taken off and his hair all messed-up like (it was so cute~!) and I smiled, sitting down on one of the amazing red couches.

"Thank you for joining me tonight. Would you care for some tea?"

"Not particularly, thanks."

He nodded and sat down beside me. "…." I said, for the first time in the history of my life.

He then proceeded to kiss me, which I was horribly confused by. At the same time, I was thinking something along the lines of "awesome~!"

AN/ Durr hurr ;; Suckish ending is suckish, but oh well XD I'll try to write the next bit a bit faster. This one turned out kind of pointless ^^' I set it down for too long and couldn't get back into it. It's not my fault I got sick…. ;;


	15. Chapter 15

/I'm sorry this took so long for me to write… I lost my flash drive with everything on it (including an animation for an upcoming contest I'm entering hopefully ;; And all my music…) so I was kind of discouraged. Plus I've been working diligently on my fursuit (hooray for being a furry xD) and my Pyramid Head costume ^^' (Blame Silent Hill for this taking so long XD)

* * *

I stared at him, my eyes wide. My face was more than likely the same shade of red as the couch at that point. "Toki, is something wrong?" he asked, putting his hand on my face slightly.

I had the urge to scream "KYAAAHHHHH~~~!" like a psycho day-class fangirl from Vampire Knight, which I suppressed. Instead, our conversation went something like this:

"Well…. You're…kind of disregarding my bubble."

"What?"

"My personal bubble. Mi pompa privada. You know."

Then he ran his fingers through my hair, causing my face to redden more, which I didn't think was possible. He kissed me again with a satisfied smile as if that had been his whole goal, and I decided, hey, why not? So, I kissed him back.

Blood looked confused by that, his new expression making him go from "cute" to "adorable"(quite quickly, I may add). I wrapped my arms around him and closed my eyes gleefully, opening them back up slightly to try and make sure my awesomeness didn't kill him or anything. "Miss Toki, what happened to that "pompa privada" you were just complaining about?" he teased, brushing my hair out of my face.

"…You broke it. I'm suing for the damages."

"I'll have to call my lawyer." He kissed me again softly, staring into my eyes.

Right about then I figured, '_if this was a Japanese dating simulator, he would have maybe three hearts for me. Knowing Blood, it _could_ be a two heart event too.' _Then I sighed out loud because my coma-slash-trip-to-Jupitarian-Mexico was a flipping dating sim gone mad.

"Are you alright?" Blood asked, feeling somewhat forgotten apparently.

I looked away from him slightly, my heart beating six hundred miles a minute. "You know… I'm gonna wake up from this coma, or get kicked out of Mexico by an angry little girl one of these days, Blood. But I'll make sure I tell my family that I had a real boyfriend who was an awesome mafia boss with a great taste in hats," I said quietly. Trust me; being quiet is difficult for me.

He lightly pushed my head on his shoulder, glaring at the air like he wanted it to do a little dance for him but knew that it was just full of inferior dust particles that were not capable of doing such things. "Joker…" he hissed, much to my confusion because his head was in my way.

"Ah, Blood. I'm so glad to see how happy you two are together. That always makes it more fun to tear you apart."

I pulled back to confirm that it was in fact the same girl who had been talking to me before. She was- wacky eye patch, bright red hair like Reno's from Final Fantasy VII, and the hat that only a total weirdo would wear on a regular basis like she did. "Oh, it's that weirdo that showed up before…"

Blood stared at me, his eyes narrowed. "What? You've seen her before?" I nodded slightly. "You should've told me!"

"I didn't exactly think it was important. I figured it was just a dream, okay?" I defended somewhat weakly. I kicked myself mentally for being so stupid and clung to him tightly, praying that he wouldn't be too mad at me for not speaking up.

"How romantic." Joker sighed, wrinkling her nose with disgust. "I'll be glad to get rid of you, Toki."

I glared, not being one to like being insulted. Well, no one likes being insulted, and it was more of a death threat than an insult, but still. You get the point- I wasn't happy. "I'd set a new goal, then, 'cause I'm not leaving. You guys brought me here, so you have to deal with me." I pulled Blood just a little bit closer, feeling much safer afterwards. I blushed a bit (it's not hard to embarrass me, is it?) and smiled slightly.

I closed my eyes, laying my head on his chest, expecting to hear the steady beating of his heart. But I didn't.

* * *

/AN/ Yeah, rushed and crappy I know. (as always XD) But I suppose it develops plot a bit XD


	16. Chapter 16

XD Thanks to those who reviewed the last chapter (except of course the spam from that troll), it really means a lot to me~! Surprisingly enough I don't have much to say in the notes here, so…. I suppose I'll just get to the story XD

"Blood…." I muttered, staring at him with wide-eyes. Instead of a heartbeat there was a different sound, which I hadn't expected to hear at all. He grabbed my hand, staring into my eyes. Joker smiled sadistically in the background, waving to us.

"I'll just leave you two, then." She vanished mysteriously, sort of like a super-awesomely-talented ninja, only not like that because she sucks too epically.

"You're afraid, aren't you?" Blood tightened his grip on my wrist slightly and I felt my heart beating faster.

I was silent for a minute. "Why didn't you tell me?" I put my hand on his chest softly. "I mean, that's so…. awesome."

He looked overcome with confusion, for a moment forgetting that he was in fact talking to Toki Hana, who feared very little besides storms, dust bunnies, and chipmunks. Clock sounds instead of heartbeats were not on that list. "I mean, if _I_ had a clock for a heart, I'd never be late! Well, I would, but… I'd be _fashionably _late. Not that I'm not already because hey, what do I ever do that's not fashionable?"

He looked slightly relieved and smiled. "You certainly are a strange girl, Toki." He kissed me and I smiled too.

"It took you this long to realize that?"

The mafioso shook his head. "Of course not. You'd have to be blind and deaf not to notice."

"Gee, thanks."

He glanced at the window for a moment, looking back at me. "The night's already over. You should get some sleep."

I sighed, frowning. "But I'm not tired."

"Toki."

"Meh. Whatever." I stood up, defeated by Blood's awesomeness, (which had somehow managed to overcome mine. Seriously, how is that even POSSIBLE?) and walked towards the door. "Good… noon, I guess?" He nodded and I went out into the hallway, going into my room.

I sat on the bed, noticing just how tired I actually was, and lay back, staring up at the ceiling. I thought about what Joker had told me (dear god, I was thinking. Bad things tend to happen when I do that.), realizing with a pang of sadness that she was probably right. I couldn't stay there forever- sure comas could last a long time, but eventually I'd either wake up or just die.

I closed my eyes, trying to shake the idea of leaving Blood from my head. I didn't want to go back, whether staying there forever was an option or not. I'd never actually cared so much about anyone before. And not just Blood- the twins, the not-rabbit, Nightmare-sama, Gray; everyone I met had been so kind to me. Even Ace, although I hate to admit it.

I drifted off into sleep, waking up to the light of the morning shining through the window. I pulled myself up, stretching and yawning before walking to the door. I went out into the hall absentmindedly.

Unfortunately (well, for him at least) I had waked out right in front of  
Aido, who had been carrying a stack of papers so big that it blocked his view entirely. He bumped into me, sending the paper flying around the hallway. "Miss Toki!" he complained, staring around at the disaster that I had created (that's a pretty good record for me- awake for less than two minutes and I'd already made a huge mess!) unhappily.

"Oops," I said, skirting around him. "Well, have fun with that." I quickly walked off, leaving him behind.

"Toki!" I didn't look back and decided that running would be the better option there. Unfortunately (this time for me) I ran into the not-rabbit because I lack balance, grace, the ability to walk in a straight line, and many other things that aren't relevant to that situation.

He glared indignantly at me, brushing off. "Watch where you're going; honestly, must you really run about like a maniac?" I returned his glare equally indignantly.

"I totally meant to do that. It was my whole plan. So… bye."

I continued my bout of 'running about like a maniac' until I reached the front door and decided that perhaps it'd be best if I left the Hatters in peace for a while. Five minutes and two disasters was pretty bad, even for me, and I didn't feel like causing any more problems because then Blood would probably get mad. Not that I cared about that all that much because he's pretty cute when he's mad, but still.

It took me a while to realize that something was off about the forest. I stared at the green trees for about ten minutes, and then it hit me.

The trees were _green._ (An acorn hit me too, which hurt pretty bad.)

I also noticed that I was slightly warmer than usual- it felt more like early summer than autumn. What puzzled me was the fact that the leaves on the ground for the most part were gone. I shrugged that off though; it was obvious that the gnomes had just gotten bored and tried to trick me (SO TAKE THAT, GNOMES! I'm onto you….!).

I decided that perhaps the seasons changed randomly too like the days, and content with that conclusion started walking to nowhere in particular. Getting lost hadn't actually been on my agenda (which was dumb, because it's me. Getting lost happens to take up 97% of my time when I'm not at home. There it only takes up about 76%.).

Sadly, although I refused to admit it, that had occurred, conveniently when the world decided that it was nighttime. I heard some rustling in the bushes, much to my displeasure, and watched in an almost horrified way, hoping that it was anything but a chipmunk (or a dust bunny).

On the bright side it wasn't. Although it was almost as bad.

/AN/ Okay, I cranked this chapter out pretty quickly, so please excuse me for its lack of development of any sort ^^'. I suppose it's leading into something that could be promising… I would say that I'm open to suggestions as to who she's going to run into, but I've already come up with a pretty good idea for the next chapter. Now I must go feed my imaginary friends because Ace is acting like I haven't given him food in three months and Gray is starving to the point of insanity (he sent Bakura to the hospital… although he deserved it for tearing off his arms last month .)

Don't mind my rants about my imaginary friends… That's just an inside joke between me and my friend Stri XD

The review button does not in fact bite! (although hungry Ace does… so… au revior!)


	17. Chapter 17

This has to be the fastest I've updated in a long time. The last chapter was… meh. But hopefully this one will actually be somewhat better XD Sorry I've been away from writing this, I was working on it on Wednesday but I fell sick from the smell of rotting food (my dad had to fix the drain connected to the dishwasher. It was horrible…). I've updated Heart and Clock a few times though XD

"Toki! I wasn't expecting to find you here! Are you lost too?"

Oh. My. God. No way. "_Ace,_" I muttered, narrowing my eyes at him. "What are _you_ doing here?"

"I was going to the castle. There's a shortcut this way!"

"How about this: before you try shortcuts, learn the long way. That'll make life easier I'm sure," I said slowly as though talking to a total moron. Oh wait, I was.

I sighed, grabbing his hand as I started walking. In all truth, as annoying as is laughter was, he had a very large sword and I was much more comfortable walking around in the forest at night with someone who was heavily armed (odd, I know, but those wolves are after me, I'm telling you. They want revenge for that sparkle-wolf I drew a few months ago in MS Paint). "Come on. With your luck you're probably going towards the only place where we'll get shot at without question."

He looked confused (as always. But his confused smile was sort of growing on me a bit. He reminded me of my brother in a way, only older, cuter, and slightly stupider. And not related to me) and I sighed. "Ace, you're really heavy so I'd appreciate it if I didn't have to drag you everywhere."

"Huh? I'm not that heavy am I? I thought you just lacked upper body strength." I turned around and punched him at that comment because he really deserved to be punched. Don't say he didn't.

"Shut. Up. Now just follow me." I let go of his hand and continued in the same direction, glancing back every few steps to make sure he didn't wander off. He did fifteen times before finally I saw something in the distance.

I assumed it was Heart Castle because I'd never been there before and it looked unfamiliar. I was quite unhappy that the seasons had all vanished though. Because that was my primary way of getting around, in case you hadn't guessed.

I voiced my opinion quite loudly to Ace, who seemed taken aback by my pointless outburst. "The seasons are only like that during April Season," he explained, scratching his head.

"April's a month though. I would know; I love April fools."

"So you have that in your world too?"

"… Duh."

He smiled brightly. "That makes things easier! Just think of it as Joker playing a prank on us!"

"Joker's irritating. I don't want to think about her."

"Her? You mean Gray Joker?"

"No, I mean the OTHER Joker."

"…But the other Jokers are both guys."

"There are more of them?"

"Yeah. I suppose I shouldn't be telling you all of this though, hahaha~!"

I glared impatiently. "Whatever. There's your castle; I'm going to ask someone if I can look at a map so I can get back home."

His smile quickly faded and he looked away from me. I turned my head too to see what he was staring at.

And then I cried out with joy.

/AN/ XD Sort of predictable what she saw, in my opinion (maybe just because I'm writing the story though lol). I cut this one off a bit shorter than the rest, but it seemed like a good place to end the chapter. Meh. Reviews are welcome :D


	18. Chapter 18

Hey guys~ I'm back :D I learned the most amazing news, too, and I bet you'll die of happiness:

HEART NO KUNI NO ALICE IS GETTING A MOVIE! :D .com/news/2011-03-18/alice-in-the-country-of-hearts-game-gets-anime-film PLUS A NEW MANGA! (Just copy and paste the link into your address bar :D) IT'S SO AWESOMMEEEEEEE~! I actually CRIED when I saw that. Yeah, I'm that big of a fantard. I'm going to die before it comes out though XD

/

"ZOMG AN ALBINO DONKEY."

Standing before me was a nerdy-looking white-haired/eared donkey guy wearing a red plaid type shirt of sorts. He glared indignantly when I said "donkey" though. So I was confusion.

"I am not a donkey!" he protested, glaring at me. "I'm a rabbit!"

"Pfft. That's what that one guy said. Only the exact opposite." He glared, evidently not amused by my response. I think he was expecting something more along the lines of "sorry". Which I don't say. Ever. Except when I step on my cat, but besides that why would I? Screw manners, I'm Toki Hana.

I don't get why I don't have more friends. Shut up, you know I'm amazing.

Anyway, back on topic slightly, he was unhappy and holding out a (very shiny and pink) gun. "Um, it's pretty rude to aim guns at people Mr. Not-Donkey," I said, frowning innocently.

"Hahahaha~, Peter, you're so mean. Toki's an outsider~." The bunny-guy turned to Ace at that, interested in what he had to say apparently. "The Hatter brought her here a while ago."

Peter raised an eyebrow. "That man brought another here? What was wrong with Alice?" He muttered the last bit to himself distastefully; quiet enough that I could only barely hear him.

"Alice?" I asked absentmindedly. "But I thought this was my coma. Gosh darn it, does that mean that Joker's not the only other female in this dream?"

Ace laughed. "You don't have to worry about Alice. She's not around anymore." His expression changed to a slightly less usual one for him- dark, almost evil looking, which was awesome- and he smiled. I was confused at first, but then I remembered Blood mentioning another outsider before too.

"What happened to her?"

"Nothing. She left." Peter walked away silently, and I doubted that she simply 'left'.

"Tell me the truth, Ace. Before I punch you."

"Hahaha~, you're mean."

"I'm serious." My voice was demanding, almost panicking at that point.

"You'll find out when you need to."

He turned to leave. "Thanks for helping me find my way back here~." I nodded slightly.

"Right." I couldn't help but feel as though whatever had happened to the "other" outsider was going to inevitably happen to me. I thought that maybe Joker had sent her away, but Peter had questioned Blood's motive for bringing _me_ there. Maybe it had been him that had gotten rid of her? My head started hurting (it tends to do that when I try too hard to think) so I cleared my mind, stumbling upon the Hatter Mansion once more in about three cycles.

I wasn't surprised to see that the twins weren't in front of the gate, although I didn't expect to see Blood there. I ran over to him smiling, and he greeted me with a stern look.

"Where were you, Toki?" he scolded, unable to completely mask the worry in his voice.

I couldn't think of what to say. 'I was in the way so I went off and got lost, and then I was hanging out with Ace and that white Not-Donkey guy' didn't sound very convincing. I shrugged it off though and went with that for a lack of another explanation.

"I told you not to go near the knight."

"It's not my fault we were both lost. I didn't exactly feel like getting eaten by wolves, either."

He sighed, so I decided that he needed a hug and gave him one, making sure he was almost completely unable to breathe through my superiority.

"You need to be more careful. I-We were worried about you."

I nodded, resting my head on his shoulder and smiling. "Sorry. But I do have…. A question." He raised an eyebrow and I regretted bringing it up.

"The other outsider… Alice, what happened to her?"

He was quiet for a long time, staring off into the distance, before squeezing my hand and beginning to walk. I followed after him, surprised, as he headed towards his rose garden.

"Come with me."  
I couldn't help but think that I was sticking my nose where it didn't belong again.

/Suckish chapter is suckish I know, but this was sort of just filler. I've been practicing a new art style (check out my dA gallery if you want to see it ( .com/gallery/ ). I have a picture of Toki that I'll try to finish soon XD) and preparing for Tekkoshocon. Plus it's been really nice out XD


	19. Chapter 19

"Blood?" I was trying my hardest to keep up with him _without_ tripping over my own feet. I lack coordination and an attention span though, so that was hard for me. But gosh darn it I did pretty good- I only fell over one and a half times.

"How did you know her name?" he demanded, staring directly into my eyes once we'd reached the garden.

"Ace and that Peter guy were talking about her."

"What else did they say?" I couldn't tell what he was feeling (I'm normally pretty decently close to being slightly good at that) at all; it was like a mixture of panic, anger, confusion, and all of those other feelings that aren't 'happy' or 'joyous'.

I thought back, attempting to come up with a way to tell him without him like shooting me or something. "Well… Peter said something about not knowing why you brought me here. He asked Ace what was wrong with Alice."

He bit his lip, looking away from me for a minute. "That rabbit always spews nonsense. You shouldn't worry about what he says to you."

I didn't believe him, but I also didn't want him to go all angry-Mafioso-guy like he did before when I first went to his garden. I nodded. "Right. Sorry I brought it up," I said quietly, resting my head lightly on his chest. I didn't understand why he didn't trust me enough to tell me the truth, but the guilty expression he was wearing at that point made me think that it was probably for my own good.

"I'm sort of tired." Changing the subject seemed like a good way to end the conversation and hopefully get rid of some of the awkwardness, because I was starting to get really uncomfortable.

He somewhat forced a smile. "Would you like me to walk back with you? I wouldn't want you to get lost again."

"Gee, thanks Blood." I smiled too, grabbing his hat and putting it on my head. "I'm so glad you have faith in me."

He took my hand in his and started walking back towards the mansion. I couldn't take my eyes off of him- he looked like a vampire prince or something with the full moon overhead (I watch too many vampire movies and animes, huh?). But in any case, he seemed so majestic, and I'm sure beside him I looked like a total idiot.

"You could take a picture, Toki. It would last longer," he teased, and I realized that I had somehow managed to space out all the way to my room.

"Sorry." My face turned red and I sat down on the bed, staring at the ground. He sat beside me, brushing my hair out of my face and tracing his finger down my jaw line.

He came closer and kissed me, and as always I looked dazed and confused. "Good night, Toki." He took back his hat, which I had set beside me, and stood up, walking out and closing the door behind him. I smiled, closing my eyes as I curled up into a ball, covering myself with the blankets. I'd never actually been in love before, but I figured that what I had with Blood was pretty close. It had to be the best feeling ever.

I found myself in the dream-world of crayons and vomit, much to my displeasure. I didn't much feel like talking to Joker, and I thought that maybe Nightmare had forgotten I existed.

It was then that I realized that he hadn't, even more to my displeasure because he decided to greet me with a rape-like hug. I announced that loudly, by the way. Quite loudly.

"GET OFF OF ME YOU STUPID PERVERT!" I hissed, jumping back with surprise.

He looked taken aback by that, staring at me with confusion. "Toki? What's wrong?" he asked, staring at me somewhat seductively.

"YOU'RE A FREAK!"

"…I'm an incubus. I thought I told you that."

"YEAH BUT YOU CAN'T JUST VIOLATE PEOPLE AT RANDOM."

He sighed. "Toki, I'm not sure you grasp the concept of an 'incubus'."

"I know perfectly well what one is, thank you."

"Then you'll forgive me for this?" He kissed me, much to my even greater displeasure than before.

"Why do I feel like I'm being harassed sexually?" He put his hand on my chin, staring into my eyes and I pushed back, only to have him grab my arm to keep me from moving. "I am SO not forgiving you for this one."

"Demon, what is it that you think you're doing?"

I turned around, relieved when I saw Blood. "He's harassing me, Blood!" I complained, managing to struggle away from the now-distracted Nightmare and rushing to Blood's side. I clung to his arm like my little brother when he went into my room, my heart racing. I could hear Blood's clock ticking loudly, and being as A.D.D. as I am I found it horribly amusing. I mean, clocks don't usually get louder when people are ticked off.

Back on topic slightly, I felt awesome having Blood go all the way to the world of dreams just to help me. I figured that he had other reasons for actually going there, but my big head decided that I would just use that as my explanation.

"You'd find it in your best interest to keep your hands off Toki," Blood threatened, holding out his (very pretty) machine gun. Nightmare smiled, looking amused at that.

"Will I now? Perhaps, Hatter." He vanished and I hugged Blood tightly, him pulling me closer.

"I…was scared…" I muttered, burying my face in his chest. Yes, I, Toki Hana, had been scared. But trust me, you would've been too. You KNOW you would've been.

"It's alright." His voice was soft and soothing, and I didn't want to let go. But in a few moments we both started fading away.

I woke up, confused to find him beside me. I thought that I'd been sleepwalking again, but upon further inspection I realized that we were in my room.

My face turned brighter red than I thought physically possible as he opened his eyes drowsily, smiling at me. "Are you alright, Toki?"

I couldn't think of what to say at that point. I was caught between "Yes" and "ZOMGWHATAREYOUDOINGHERE?"

So, I just went with the happy medium. "Yeah, thanks to you… But… what are you doing in my room? Or rather, my… bed?"

"I could hear you talking in your sleep so I came to make sure you were okay. I assumed that Nightmare was giving you a hard time."

"I… thanks…." I closed my eyes and pressed myself closer to him, not wanting to ever have to leave him again. He ran his fingers through my hair gently, and I could hear his clock ticking in time to my own heart beat. "I…"

"You what…?" he asked quietly.

"I… Please don't... don't ever leave me…" I choked, starting to cry. He pulled me even closer, closing his eyes.

"I won't. I promise."

And there wasn't a doubt in my mind that he was telling the truth.

/AN.

XD This chapter… was inspired by Haunted by Evanescence. So yeah. Lol I tried making Nightmare actually somewhat incubus-like, and this was loosely based on one of his scenes in HNKNA. Originally this chapter was barely a page and a half long, so I added that part. Lol~ Chapter 20's up next, so expect another bonus chapter :D


	20. Chapter 20

Hey guys~! Chapter 20 finally :D I'm so proud of myself XD This story takes up 46 pages as of 19 (minus a few notes that dip onto pages of their own) in the printed copy I keep with me XD I really love writing this and I'm glad that so many people support me and find it as entertaining as I do :) It makes me feel really good as a writer XD Thanks so much to every one of my supporters who've followed me thus far, and to any newer readers :D

**Bonus Chapter 2 **

I sighed, watching silently as my brother epically failed again to hit his target. I grabbed the Playstation controller from him impatiently and going into the menu, restarting the level of the game. "Honestly, you're such a failure," I said, glaring at him.

He returned my glare, just as impatient with me. "Well maybe if you didn't hang over my shoulder the whole time I'd be able to focus."

"Look, Ouran High School Host Club comes on in five minutes, and if you make me miss that because you're stuck on this stupid game I'll be forced to exact my revenge in a harmful manner." He tried desperately to grab his controller again.

"Toki, stop antagonizing your brother," Blood sighed as he joined us. I frowned, muttering crossly to myself about how annoying Jacob was as I handed back his game.

"Whatever." I pushed him off the couch winking when he narrowed his eyes at me. "That's what you get for occupying the television."

The Mafioso rolled his eyes, smiling. "You can be so rude at times, Toki," he laughed, making me move over slightly so he could sit down.

"I know, right?"

"Says the mafia boss and the annoying little brother." I crossed my arms, stifling a smile for a moment before hugging my awesome boyfriend and stealing his hat. Jacob made a disgusted face, so I decided to torture him even more by kissing Blood.

He looked confused, even more so when I stood up, taking with me his awesome hat. "You're not getting this back." He raised an eyebrow, standing and trying to grab it back. I dashed upstairs and into my room, dodging the random crap strewn across the floor more gracefully than I thought possible.

His jaw dropped when he saw the enormous mess. "Toki, you can't honestly live in this disaster!"

"Yep. I do."

He tried coming after me, very slowly, careful not to break his leg, and took back his hat triumphantly. "Jerk," I muttered. "You criticize my room and then take back the hat I stole from you fair-and-square." I didn't understand the term 'fair-and-square', but I used it anyway. (Seriously, what do squares have to do with anything?)

"In my defense it IS my hat."

"Thus _stole_." He smiled, rolling his eyes again. He kissed me and my face reddened slightly as I kissed him back, pulling him close. I returned his smile, closing my eyes. Then I realized something. "CRAP!"

"Toki, what's wrong?"

"I'm going to miss Ouran!" I flew back downstairs, abandoning him in the rubble, and sat on the couch, glad to see that Jacob had actually listened to me and finished his game.

AN/ Yeah, just a random AU. It was fun to write though lol Now, onto the actual chapter~

**Chapter 20**

I fell asleep again, hoping that I wouldn't have another encounter with Nightmare, thankful to find that I didn't dream of him. When I woke up Blood was sitting beside me, a distant look in his eyes.

"Blood…?" I muttered, getting up drowsily. "How long did I sleep?"

"About an hour."

At that point I was thinking, "ZOMG FANTARD SQUEE HE WAITED FOR AN HOUR FOR ME TO WAKE UP~?" How awesome was that, though? I would've just gotten bored and said "screw this, I'm leaving" after two minutes. No, more than likely just one minute.

"You didn't have to wait that long…." I yawned, sitting up and rubbing my eyes.

He smiled. "I promised I wouldn't leave you." I came closer to him, hugging him tightly. I felt him running his fingers through my hair and I blushed slightly.

Then my short attention span kicked in and I wondered where his hat was. I confused him by asking that, which was horribly amusing. I love ruining such moments with ridiculous questions, but I mean, come on, who wouldn't?

"…You've definitely recovered," he said, sighing with another smile and standing up. "In which case, I suppose you'll be returning to your gate-keeping job today?"

"….Eww. Work." I got up, stretching with a dissatisfied groan. "Whatever."

He looked even more amused. But it was a sadistic kind of amused. So I threw a pillow at him. "What was that for?" he asked, not expecting me to pelt him with something.

"_That_ was for inviting yourself into my bed." I grabbed it from him again and hit him harder. "And _that_ was because I can."

The Mafioso rolled his eyes before taking my weapon and holding it out of my reach (well, I could've reached it, but I was too lazy to). "I suppose I'll see you later then," I said, gesturing for him to leave so I could change into my work clothes.

"I look forward to it."

"I know, right?" He laughed as he walked out into the hallway, closing the door behind him. I changed quickly, grabbing my axe (which I kept under the bed for emergencies only) and dashing outside, running past Aido and narrowly escaping another mishap like before.

Dee and Dum were impatiently standing by the woods, waiting for me to come so they could go play hooky.

"Seriously guys? Can't you just, I don't know, stay here for a while? I get so bored," I complained.

"Elder-sister-brother, why don't you come with us?"

"Yeah! You can come play with us!"

"….Sure, why not?"

They both cheered happily and much to my discomfort decided that I wasn't capable of walking without assistance. They dragged me with them (I was sure to inform them that I was perfectly fine with not having help, but they ignored me) into the woods and towards the Amusement Park. I was confusion though. Because I had been pretty sure that the Amusement Park and Hatters were enemies (the more I think about it, the weirder that sounds….).

I shrugged it off. It was Dee and Dum- I had learned quickly not to be surprised at anything they did. "Onee-san, did you meet Boris yet~?" Dum asked once we'd reached the park.

"Um, he's the pink cat guy, right?" They nodded excitedly. "Yeah. I met that mouse guy too."

"Eww, Pierce? He's a wimp~!"

"Yeah~! He's better than the blondie-chickie-rabbit though."

I couldn't help but laugh at them. I'd never really been a kid-person, but they were so cute. And carried axes ninety-five percent of the time. Even then Dee had a gun and Dum had his giant blade.

"I wonder if the boss'll cut our pay for taking Onee-san."

"I don't want my pay cut again!"

"….If my pay gets cut I'm holding you two personally responsible, understand?"

They both looked shocked. "Hey~! You agreed to come!"

"Yeah!"

"Yes, but you still dragged me here so I can just say you're lying. Who do you think Blood will believe?"

"….."

I smiled, satisfied that I had won. But I _always_ win. And by always I mean I very rarely don't lose. This was one of those times, though.

"Hey, guys. You finally got the outsider to come with you, huh?" I hadn't even noticed that Boris had showed up, which was kind of pitiful actually because he'd come from the direction I was facing and his hair was neon pink.

"Yes, sadly. So much for impressing Blood…" I thought aloud. I realized that I had said this (luckily it had been quieter than I usual did when conversing with myself) and quickly made up for it by saying, "I mean, what?" as fast as I could. They all got confused.

"What did you say, Onee-san?"

"I said hello. Obviously."

Boris smiled, examining me closely (by examining closely, I mean he was sniffing me). "I don't think we were fully introduced before. My name's Boris, the Cheshire Cat."

I thought for a moment. "Um, my name's Toki, the God of Awesome."

Yes, I went there.

He laughed though, so evidently it seemed he shared my sense of humor. "Sweet. So, you're a gatekeeper for the Hatter now?"

"Yeah. It was the only job that didn't require much effort."

"You could always come live here; I get off with only building a float or two every once in a while when the old man decides to have a parade."

"Thanks, but-"

Unfortunately the twins pulled off being louder than me, beating me to the declining of me leaving the mafia. "No way, stupid cat!" Dee complained.

"Yeah, Onee-san's staying with us!"

"Get your own outsider!" They both clung to my sides like a tick to a Chihuahua, making me annoyed.

"Um, guys, I can handle my own affairs thanks." I pushed them off, looking back at Boris. "Yeah, Boris, I'm gonna have to say no. If I lived here I couldn't bug Aido as much."

He nodded slightly. "Well then, you didn't come here to stand around and talk, so how 'bout a tour?"

"That sounds fun."

/AN. Meh. Boris is hard to keep in character XD I think I failed at that. This chapter's not too bad, I suppose ^^; Sorry this took so long to post, I've had it done for a week now and never got around to uploading it XD Anyway, I'm going to Tekkoshocon in Pittsburgh on Sunday! I can't wait! I'll be going for my first time this year, as Haruhi from Ouran HS Host Club~. Not hard for me, seeing as I'm a living version of her minus the apathy. Besides that, we're perfectly the same (Down to my name being "Haru" XD)


	21. Chapter 21

. I just got this amazing game called Lifeline (It's a horror/survival game, very similar to Silent Hill (actually, it's made by the same company XD I love Konami). You play as the "operator" and guide the main character through the hotel (which is in space) while she tries to find something and free you) and I was playing Cabela's Dangerous Hunts 2011 too XD That one was pretty fun too :3. I'll be writing a Lifeline fic, so if you're interested in it just send me a PM and I'll give you a bit more info (or a summary if you don't mind spoilers :3). I also got kittens :D I'm keeping two (Alice and Toki XD) and my brother's getting the other two for his daughter (we call them Cheza (after the Wolf's Rain character, since we called her "This one" XD) and Rio (who up until we beat Lifeline was 'Sped' as in Special Ed XD)). Toki bit me today and it was so hilarious XD

/

"This," Boris said, gesturing towards an enourmous track that made me dizzy just by looking at it, "is my favorite ride in the park. You wanna ride it with me?"

"Um... If I do that I might puke on you. I'm scared of heights. And fast things."

Yes. I'm afraid of rollercoasters and thunder. Isn't it great?

"I'll hold you, don't worry." He came uncomfortably close and brushed my hair softly with his fingers. Dee and Dum wrinkled their noses for a moment before dragging me away.

"Heyy~! Toki's ours, stupid cat~!"

"Yeah, Boris~! You suck~!"

He scratched his ear awkwardly, sighing. "You two are so annoying."

"Well, thanks for the tour, Boris, but I want to get back now before Blood finds out I was gone." In all truth I just really wanted to leave for some reason. I couldn't exactly tell. Boris was just making me slightly uncomfortable.

"Um... right. Come back and visit, okay?"  
"Sure. See ya."

I walked off, the twins close behind me, my heart pounding heavily as I picked up my pace. "So, you guys hang out with him a lot?" I asked, trying to break the silence.

"Yeah."

"I thought the people at the Amusement Park were our enemies, though."

"He's just a freeloader, so no one cares."

I nodded, laughing. Then I stopped laughing because I realized that the freeloader may have just cost me another job.

Blood was standing by the gate, glaring at us as we walked up to the mansion. I forced a smile and waved awkwardly, making him cross his arms and sigh.

"Miss Toki, care to explain where you three were all this time?"

"Um... No, actually I'd rather not."

"Toki."

I sighed, hanging my head in defeat. "Whatever. The twins dragged me along with them to the Amusement Park to play hookey."

"Heeyyyyyy~! We didn't force you~!"  
"But you did drag me."

"Toki, I somehow doubt that this was entirely their doing. Though they will both be getting their pays deducted," he muttered, glaring at them. They both opened their mouths to protest, but they immediately shut up upon the impact of his dissapoint.

I, unfortunately for him, am immune to dissapoint, so I carried on my merry way towards the mansion. He surprisingly let me go, following after me impatiently.

"Toki, come with me," he said once we were inside. As I figured he took me back to his room, closing the door behind me as I took my usual spot on the couch of wonderous couchlyness. I scooted over slightly when he sat beside me, not wanting to look him in the eye. I was being horribly out of character; I mean, I'm Toki freaking Hana, when do I feel guilty about anything?

"Blood...I'm sorry..." I muttered so quietly that I could barely hear myself. He raised an eyebrow.

"What was that?"

I glared, sensing that he was amused by my attempt to apologize so subtly that he would barely notice. "An apology, okay? I don't make a habit out of saying sorry, so consider yourself lucky." I pulled my knees up to my face and fell silent.

He looked concerned, moving closer and putting a hand on my shoulder. "Toki? What's wrong?"

"I..." I couldn't think of the words to say. I felt so horrible for what had happened with Boris. Nothing had actually happened, but still it bothered me that I let him come so close. I looked up at him out of the corner of my eye, and without much thinking hugged him.

I felt myself start crying, and I'm still not sure of how long I spent there with his arms wrapped around me. After a while I rubbed my eye, smiling slightly. "Sorry... I just get... a bit emotionally unbalanced on occaision."

He ran his fingers through my hair, still holding me gently, and I closed my eyes, falling asleep.

When I woke up I was confused to find that the room at first wasn't familiar. I sat up slightly, my face turning red when I realized that I was either in A.) Blood's room or 2.) a room with sofas as amazing as his. I doubted the latter, though, because no couch could rival Blood's.

That wasn't the only reason, of course. Blood was also sitting at the desk, coming over to me when he saw that I'd woken up.

Unfortunately for him I'd also realized that my jacket and shirt were sitting on the edge of the bed, so I was wearing only my tank-top undershirt. I grabbed the nearest pillow, pelting it at him without warning and hitting him square in the face. "You. Freaking. Pervert," I hissed, grabbing another pillow and throwing it at him. He caught it, taking the last one that I had prepared before I could toss it, too.

"Must you always assume the worst of me?"

"Yes."

He smiled. "So, I don't even get the benefit of the doubt? Well then, perhaps I should just fit your expectations." He pushed me back on the bed, pinning me down and putting a hand on my chest. I attempted to push him off, but I failed epically.

The mafioso kissed me and I started shaking slightly. I was always scared when he did something like that, knowing that I was completely helpless.

He put his hand on mine, kissing me again softly. He brushed my hair from my face before getting off, sitting beside me.

I continued trembling until he took my hand in his and squeezed it tightly. "I won't force you to do anything like that, Toki," he whispered in my ear.

"Then... please stop teasing me like that. That's sexual harassment, you know..."

"I'm sorry. I'll try to control myself."

"Thanks..."

/Suckish chapter is equally suckish to the other suckish chapters that are suckish. If that made sense. XD I couldn't think of much to write, sorry ^^; I did want to get out of the writer's block that Boris's chapter put me in though, which this chapter certainly did. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy the holiday :3


	22. Chapter 22

I sat silently with Blood, which was slightly less shocking than it had always seemed before, for a while until finally he broke the awkwardness. "Toki, will you walk with me for a bit?" he asked, his voice more gentle than usual.

"Um… Sure."

I followed him outside into the gardens, the bright moon shining overhead. I hadn't realized that the time had changed already, more than likely because I was a spaz that lacked attention skills. But that was beside the point.

"So, Blood… How was your day…?" I muttered, oddly enough more quiet than when I conversed with myself. He raised an eyebrow and glanced at me out of the corner of his eye.

"Well," he began as soon as he had fully processed what I'd said, "it would have been better if you hadn't run off. Honestly, Toki, what am I going to do with you?"

"…The twins play hooky all the time, and they haven't been fired…."

"The _twins_ also serve in other ways. Unfortunately for you, those two don't fail at shopping trips." I wasn't sure if he was being serious or if he was just teasing. Either way, I took it offensively.

"Well, you know what? At least I'm not fat like you. And I don't harass people. Because I'm not a stupid-jerk-face." I crossed my arms and looked away, causing him to laugh quietly.

"Ah, yes. That certainly makes sense."

"I know, right?"

He sighed, smiling as he stopped walking and plucked a rose from one of the bushes. I couldn't tell how he pulled off not cutting his finger, because the thorns were about twice the size of regular rose thorns. But that was just my attention deficit mind talking, I think.

He held it out to me, and I took the flower, careful not to put too much pressure on the petals so that they didn't get smashed.

I kissed his cheek softly, my face turning red. "Thanks, Blood." I stared at the rose for a long time, gently stroking the petals. "Um… Blood…?" I kept my eyes on the rose, turning my head slightly towards him.

"What is it, Toki?"

I bit my tongue. I genuinely had forgotten what I was going to ask him, and let me tell you it sucked. But, being Toki Hana, I came up with something fast. "What's your… second-favorite color?"

"What kind of question is that, Toki?"

"A very important one! I have to know everything about you as your..." I couldn't figure out quite how to end my sentence. In all truth I didn't know exactly what I was to Blood.

"My...?" he asked expectantly, as though he actually thought that I knew what I was talking about.

"Your... face."

"Toki, that makes no sense."

"But it DOES. You just have to... think about it."

He laughed for a bit, seeming slightly more open than he usually did. "Well then, I suppose it's green."

"Okay. So you like red and green, like roses. One more question."

"Isn't it my turn to ask _you_ something?"

"Yeah. But you just wasted your question. So it's my turn again." Technically he DID ask a question, so I wasn't lying and thus I was being perfectly fair. He didn't seem to realize my logic though, and with a sigh looked up at the sky. "You're my..." I took a deep breath, "boyfriend, right?"

I choked on my words like a tiny lizard trying to eat a dachshund, but surprisingly they came out clear enough for him to understand. I didn't quite know that at first, because he remained totally silent. "Blood...?"

"Is that what you want, then?"

"I... I really like you, Blood..." my voice slowly trailed off and I kissed him. "I'm glad I'm so clumsy."

He smiled his Jiro Mochitsuki smile, squeezing my hand. "I am too."

/

AN:/ XD This one was put down so many times that I lost my train of thought. So it went in a completely different direction ^^; I'm not too proud of this one, but meh. Oh well XD


	23. Chapter 23

"And… You threw up on me. Great. Thanks a ton."

I suppose a rewind is in order here, huh? I guess I can back up briefly for your sanity's sake.

To sum everything up, Blood claimed to have something _important_ to be doing and had to leave, much to my dissapointness. Aido also claimed to have important business, but I know for a fact that all he was doing was going to the store. So I asked him to bring me chocolate. But sadly he refused; something about not wanting me to have sugar rush or whatnot.

That led me to sit down in my room and contemplate my life in Jupitarian Mexico thus far. I was a total failure, in all truth, but that was obviously beside the point and I decided not to think much on that. I then realized that I was totally broke and was not in fact going to receive my pay for working as a gatekeeper because frankly, I was an incompetent freeloader that nearly broke the boss on several occasions.

"I know what I have to do…" I "muttered" to myself (it was _like_ muttering. If I were a three thousand ton whale with a megaphone at least). "I'm going to…. GET A JOB!" I made sure that every servant I passed was fully aware of this, depressed that my beloved Aido was still gone and couldn't hear of my brilliant plan. I also bumped into Not-Rabbit, who seemed relieved that I would be gone. What a jerk, huh?

In any case, that journey took me all across Wonderland. I began my benevolent journey in town, but everyone kicked me out upon sight. I thought about maybe trying to go to Heart Castle, but the thought of working with Ace nearly made me lose breakfast on one of the facelesses. So I ended up in none other than Clover Tower, where I always seemed to go when in need, probably since Gray was the only one besides Blood patient enough to deal with me that had more than negative two I.Q. points.

"Miss Toki? What brings you here?" the lizard-ninja greeted in his usual manner of looking slightly shocked that I was there.

"I… have another favor to ask, actually."

"What is it?"

"I need a… job…"

He looked amused when I choked out the last bit, his expression quickly changing back to its usual emoness. "Unfortunately I'm not sure I have much that you could do… Except maybe _one_ thing…"

"As long as it has nothing to do with Mr. Stalker-Freak-Psycho-Rapist-Incubus."

"Well then, I'm afraid I can't help you." He scratched his head.

"…" I sighed, shaking my foot. "Fine," I whale-muttered again.

"Don't worry; I just need you to watch Nightmare while I get this paperwork finished."

"…I swear, if he tries anything I have rights to kill him."

Gray laughed, which to me sounded more like hissing than laughter. Stupid showoff, making lizard noises.

And so I went to everyone's favorite incubus's room, with a bucket of water in hand of course, all so that I could buy Blood a present. I'm amazing, aren't I? I bet you all wish you were friends with me now.

"Nightmare!" I screamed upon entering. This, unlike my muttering, was actually much like a scream. He jumped up from where he had been sleeping on the floor (for some reason he decided that beds were totally overrated) and puked up a bit of blood on me.

So, that sums stuff up. And of course that was my current situation.

I knew one thing though; I was gonna have a heck of a time babysitting.

/AN. Weird chapter, but I needed some interlude. I'm gonna try to incorporate more of the other characters, though sadly it means that Blood may not appear for… at least three chapters… ;; If everything goes as planned…. But there will be Ace :3 XD


	24. Chapter 24

So in case you hadn't guessed, poor Nightmare was in for a heck of a lot of trouble. But he deserved it; I mean, he freaking _tried to rape me!_ How horrible is that?

I continued death glaring at him for a long time for vomiting on me until he got bored and pulled out his pipe, which I promptly took and broke in half.

"What was that for?" he whined, looking like he was going to cry.

"For being a freaking incubus."

He sniffled. "I… I can't help being who I am…"

"Neither can I. And I'm Toki freaking Hana, so obviously it's required of me to be a jerk too."

He didn't quite understand my explanation (well, in all truth I was just wandering about in the dark searching for an excuse when I said that) and got up, indignantly brushing himself off. _'Jeez… What a baby….' _I thought to myself.

"Hey~~! That's so mean!"

"What?" I felt as though I should question him even though it was obvious that everything I did to him was in some way backed by evil intentions.

"You just called me a baby!"

"Um... No."

"You did!"

"Did... not, you mean."

"In your head!"

Stupid demon guy, reading my mind. No respect for personal space these days, is there? I death glared him for this invasion of my brain (in theory I actually have one, you know) and hoped that perhaps since he could read thoughts my horrible visions I gave myself of me having epic laser vision he would either one, actually leave me alone or number-after-one, feel the pain and agony I wished upon him.

One thing I could do was hold a grudge.

I realized quickly that Nightmare was doing neither. In fact, he had by now given up the whole 'weep and hope she leaves' method and was examining me closely with his silver eye. My thoughts of torture weren't working at all.

Fortunately I had a back-up plan for my revenge. "GAHH! TOKI! I... I don't need thoughts like that... in my mind..."

That was when I was happy to be a teenage girl who was totally obsessed with a hot guy. "Oh, _I'm sorry._ Maybe you should just mind your own business you stupid rapacious freak."

As you can probably imagine neither of us enjoyed the situation much. I actually wasn't still that infuriated with him; I mean, sure I was a bit ticked off because he was touching me inappropriately, but how could someone stay angry with freaking _James_ from Neopets?

I assumed at that point he had stopped reading my mind in order to avoid the images that I had planted in his head from coming again. "Look, I'm willing to forgive you. Under one condition, of course."

"Huh? What is it?" He raised an eyebrow, seeming slightly relieved that I wasn't planning on remaining hostile. I held out my hand to him, waving my fingers expectantly and smiling somewhat evilishly.

Needless to say, I got slightly more money than I had planned on making.

After getting my extra payment for being civil towards Nightmare I got on with my assigned task given by Gray. Babysitting was much more fun when the babysittee was a demon with tuberculosis and emotional issues.

To sum everything up, because frankly I'm lazy and there's still a long story that I haven't told you yet, my job went something like this:

Nightmare vomited blood repeatedly so I had to forcibly inject his medication, which I enjoyed.

I had to go to the bathroom (GASP! Something that regular people do!) and left him alone for about five minutes, in which time he managed to accumulate approximately two trillion cats. Which by two trillion I mean about twenty.

We had a fangirl spaz contest over said cats.

I tricked Nightmare into signing something after he refused to do so for Gray.

I also tricked Nightmare into eating his 'special' soup, which resembled purple goo.

Gray offered to make me some food too, but I gently refused while trying my hardest not to vomit upon sight of it. I was surprised that it wasn't moving, actually, but that's beside the point. "Thank you for your help, Miss Toki," he said kindly, handing me a nicely sized stack of money.

"Pleasure doing business with you, sir." I shook his hand in a lawyer-gone-crazy type fashion. "I should get going now."

He nodded. "If you don't mind my asking, what is it that you were looking to buy? Unless of course the Hatter is charging rent." A light grin played on the lizard ninja guy's face, which was unusual for him. Albeit it was nice seeing him smile since it didn't happen often.

"Actually, I wanted to buy something for Blood... As a thank-you gift."

"I wish you the best of luck."

I almost reached the town when night inconvieniently fell. And of course, since night had fallen I just HAD to run into _him._

/AN. XD This chapter took literally an hour to write. I was watching iCarly though, so no guarantee about the quality of it ^^; I had a bunch of ideas for this one but I lost all of them. I apologize for my incompetence. I would like to thank Quinceisaurus for a very kind review, as well. I've got finals this week so sort of stressed from the whole 'end of the year' thing, and it really made me feel good ^^


	25. Chapter 25

/I AM SO SORRY FOR SUCH A BIG DELAY! I went to Anthrocon, and then… well, I got distracted. Between furries, AdventureQuest, Portal, and working on my original story… D/ fanfics rested nowhere in my mind. I did do a bit of psychoanalysis on Toki with my sister though, and I think she's probably one of my best characters :3/ Anyway, ON TO THE STORY! FINALLY!

/

I stared at the sky peacefully, a smile on my face as I helped set up my friend's tent in the beautifully moonlit woods.

Scratch that. I freaking death glared the gods, my rage so thick that it was hopefully asphyxiating the irritating red-trench-coat-wearing knight as he set up his stupid tent for us. You see, 'him' was Ace. And for some reason wild animals freaking LOVE to follow that guy. I really think they're trying to band together and eat him, which I wouldn't mind at all, because every time he comes near me something starts moving in the woods. I probably could've been to the store and back with Blood's present before I even came across so much as a squirrel or a turtle!

And so, it came again to me needing to sleep in a tent with one of my least favorite people. "Hahaha~, Toki, you look so evil," he said, smiling like an idiot. "So, what brings you out here alone? Usually you're with the Hatters, aren't you?"

Derp. Something about being a Hatter myself would imply that I spend a lot of time with said Hatters. " Um… Actually I came to buy something for Blood."

"Huh?" He started laughing, which got on my nerves before it even started.

"What's wrong with that?" I hissed, punching him in the shoulder as hard as I could.

"It's nothing, hahahaha~."

I crossed my arms, sighing and staring at the ground. "You think it's a dumb idea, huh?" I asked, more to myself than the knight. "He has everything already, why give him something else? It'd just be clutter for him…"

"That's not why I was laughing, Toki." I looked up, confused. "I spaced out."

"…You just spaced out halfway through asking me something?"

He narrowed his eyes a bit and a huge grin crossed his face. "Yeah. I was picturing you naked."

What.

The.

Freaking.

Heck.

Naturally, as any self-respecting woman would do, I beat the living crap out of him using every ounce of effort I could put forth. What was WRONG with that guy? Some advice for anyone out there who doesn't want to die via bludgeoning with a pillow, _don't stop halfway through a conversation to picture someone without clothing._

Ace, unfortunately for him, didn't seem to have thought of the result of his disgusting actions, and woke up in the middle of the forest. Missing a few things. Like his tent. And his wallet. And his sword.

And of course, everything else but his underwear.

I myself carried on my way to the town once the night had turned to evening, gazing around at all of the faceless people that walked the streets. It was a true wonder that they didn't all bump into each other, that was for sure. A few sketchy looking characters walked past me, but I chose to ignore them and kept walking until I came upon a nice little shop with exactly what I needed.

I also happened to pick up something for myself with the money Nightmare and Ace had so kindly given me, leaving the store with Blood's gift and a new ridiculous little hat in tow.

/Suckish chapter, I know. But it's something xD I was going somewhere completely different with Ace before, but I couldn't get it to write out. So he was just being a pervert instead XD


	26. Chapter 26

After a visit to the river where I deposited Ace's annoyingly heavy clothing (I swear he had freaking thirty pound weights sewn inside of his coat or something) I made my way back to the Hatter Mansion. It took longer than I expected though, because god hates me and decided to place the river about three cycles away from town. Which wasn't very close to the mansion in the first place.

Once I finally got back I immediately went to my room, placing Blood's gift on my nightstand and tucking the remaining money from my adventure into the pocket of my gatekeeper uniform before poking my head into Blood's room. Alas, he wasn't there, so I decided to search for him. I looked all over, until finally I decided to check the garden.

On the bright side, I found him.

But I also happened to find all of the other eye-bearing citizens of Wonderland (except for Ace) with him. Having a freaking tea party no less.

I was gone for at least twelve cycles and he threw a tea party. Very considerate of him. Truthfully I wasn't really that mad. I mean, it meant that everyone had a respect for my personal space and that they had faith in me. But heck, I had too much to work with to pass it up.

"Blood~!" I yelled happily, nearly pushing him out of his chair with a glomp of epic proportions. He looked confused and vaguely irritated because now all of the attention at the table was on us.

Just as planned of course.

"Toki? What are you doing?" he asked indignantly, pushing me off and fixing his hat.

"I just thought I'd give you a hug as thanks for being so concerned with my disappearance." I made sure to use my best sarcasm voice when I spoke, sounding as bitter as possible.

He opened his mouth to speak, but he stopped when the lizard assassin decided to chime in. "I informed him of your adventure already, Miss Toki," he mused.

"…Oh. I feel bad now."

Fortunately for me I knew just about everyone there save for a slightly weird looking old guy who reminded me vaguely of what my crazy aunt Henrietta would look like with facial hair, so everyone already knew I was a total moron and didn't bother to say anything about my interruption.

"So why exactly are you having a tea party again?

"Because." He gave me a sly smile and I waited for him to go on.

"Because….?"

"That's it."

"What's it?"

"Because."

I then realized that "the Mad Hatter" was more than just his name as a mafia boss.

"… Can someone else give me a slightly BETTER explanation?" I asked the crowd of freaks and weirdos sitting at the large table.

"Pfft, duh! Today's the boss's unbirthday!" one of the twits- I mean, twins- said matter-of-factly.

"Unbirthday? Seriously, they celebrate those in Wonderland?" Then again, how could they even tell when their birthday was with the way time worked in their world? It's a feat for it to go from morning to noon to night, let alone have a regular year.

"Duh~!" the other twit chimed in.

"Awesome."

"Would you care for some tea, Miss Toki?" Blood offered, looking slightly drunk.

"No thanks."

"Are you sure?" he asked again, looking slightly more drunk.

"Positive."

"Positive about what?"

"Not wanting tea."

"I thought you wanted tea."

"No."

"But you said yes earlier."

I glanced over at the other ones with duties to see if any of them had noticed Blood's lack of sobriety. Which as I figured they hadn't. Or they didn't care. Either way I was alone in trying to reason with the Hatter, who for some reason had apparently spiked his leaf juice. Then again, tea does suck, but I'm pretty sure he actually likes it.

"No. I never said that, Blood."

"Just sit down and drink your goddarn tea..." he sputtered, looking horribly frustrated and pulling out his cane, which he promptly transformed into his machine gun.

"No need for that, Blood." I inched away from him slowly, until finally he didn't quite register where I was, before slipping away. I waved to my two creepy furry friends (does Gray count as a furry? I mean, he's a lizard. Maybe a... scaly?) and the incubus before deciding to get out of there before I died or something.

I crawled under the covers of my bed and I closed my eyes, falling asleep. I had a crazy dream about a drunken Blood and when I woke up it was night time.

Of all the weird things that I woke up to in Wonderland before, I think that one took the cake.

Actually, at that point it more or less took the cake, ate it, and then ate the baker too.

/xD Had some trouble ending this one. It's not my best work, but the only other ideas I had past the unbirthday party thing were either too OOC after I wrote them (I've been so busy with Black Butler I haven't even played JNKNA in forever D/ But Phantom & Ghost is so much harder XD) or too crackish. In any case... I've got a few ideas for next chapter at least :3

Speaking of Black Butler, I'm not sure if I mentioned it beforehand but I've turned this story into the base for a series about Toki. The preludes will be LOVELESS (probably just something short) and Vampire Knight, and the sequel to this story (which I have the first few chapters already finished and uploaded on my page) is "Out of the Rabbit Hole", my Black Butler one. There's also Pandora Hearts planned XD


	27. Chapter 27

You see, when I opened my eyes I was caught somewhere in between screaming my head off and dying a little bit. Or dying a lot. Actually, is it even possible to die a lot? Like, when you die is there some moderate average or do you just 'die' without all these stupid labels? Okay, that's irrelevant. So I'm going to take Elliot's advice and just shut up.

But anyway, yeah. I woke up to two little weirdos HOLDING TWO FREAKING KNIVES to my throat. "WHAT ARE YOU TWO LITTLE FREAKS DOING HERE?"

"See, you woke her up~!" Dee complained, much to my discomfort moving his knife slightly closer to my neck.

"AGAIN I ASK, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"

I don't do well under pressure, F.Y.I.

"This is the only way to prove that it's HIS fault we got caught~!"

Dum appeared to resent this almost as much as I did. "No way~! It was your fault!"

"How would killing ME prove that?"

"Because! We couldn't figure out who's fault it was!"

"So we decided it must have been Elder-Sister-Brother!"

That sounded like MY logic. "Um... Okay, first off, get the weapons away from me before I scream loud enough for Ace to hear me."

Alas, they didn't seem to care about what I said at all. In fact I'm pretty sure both of them intentionally let their hands slip a little bit.

Fortunately I had been shouting earlier, and as we all know shouting is to a regular person as screeching like a freaking banshee is to a Toki. And Blood isn't deaf.

"Toki, what is going on?"

Again with this overwhelming consideration. That was just about the dumbest question he'd ever asked me. And he's asked some dumb questions.

"Oh nothing. The twins are just trying to kill me. Feel free to go back to bed," I said with as much sarcasm as I could fit into my vocal cords.

I was quite surprised to see that Mr. Drunken Mafioso didn't appear to have a horrible hangover. I mean, he was pretty freaking drunk last cycle. In any case, he gave a very intimidating death glare to the gatekeepers. "What do you two think you're doing?" he hissed, crossing his arms all awesome-like.

"Now we're in even more trouble!" the red-coated twin said accusingly to his brother, both of them removing their blades from the air near my jugular.

"It's not my fault the boss showed up~! Besides, we didn't do anything!"

Blood walked over to them, grabbing them both by the collar of their shirts and giving them a push towards the door. "Go back to the gate, you maggots. Before I decide to take away even more of your pay."

They slipped away before my boyfriend decided to get bloodthirsty, probably to go sneak off to the Amusement Park and get into more trouble than they already were in. The Mafioso looked at me, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Honestly... Miss Toki, are you alright?" he asked, sitting on the corner of my bed.

"I'm fine," I replied a touch awkwardly. He smiled gently at me, taking my hand in his, and kissed my cheek softly. I could hear his clock ticking (which made me realize just how fast my heart was still beating) in his chest in the silence. I felt strange, I guess waking up to two little kids trying to murder you to prove a point would do that though, but I was still Toki so I had to break the quietness with something stupid. "So... what kind of fruit do you like?"

"Fruit?"

"Yeah... Fruit. What's your favorite kind?"

"I'm not sure."

"Great... I'm dating a guy who doesn't know what his own favorite fruit is..."

He looked amused, playing with a lock of my hair (which now that I think about it looked slightly browner than usual) and placing his other hand on my heart. "Toki, would you care to join me for dinner tonight?" he asked spontaneously.

I raised an eyebrow inquisitively. "What?"

"Is something wrong?"

"Um... No. I think that'd be... great."

He stood up. "Alright then, I'll see you tonight."

Just as he was walking away I remembered that I still hadn't had a chance to give him a gift. "Oh right; before you go, I have something for you." I got up too.

"Oh?"

I picked up his gift from my nightstand and held it out to him. The rose I had bought for him wilted, sadly, and it looked horribly pitiful, but even so he smiled as he took the small pot from me. "Thank you, Miss Toki. It's lovely," he said, kissing my cheek again.

"I'm glad you like it." I felt the blood rush to my face slightly. He left the room and I watched him go with his awesome coat-tails trailing behind him.

Working hadn't been so bad after all, I guess. I mean, even if it wasn't the best gift ever Blood still seemed to like it. It was then that another problem hit me though; I had until night time to get a hold of something to wear for when I went out with Blood (my current outfit, as awesome as it was, was out of the question).

And I was totally broke.

/I wrote this one pretty quickly, so it's a touch short, but I hope you like it XD


	28. Chapter 28

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but... will you come with me to the castle?" I asked, the desire to stab myself repeatedly growing stronger and stronger the longer I had to look at the stupid red-coated knight.

"Huh? Hahaha~, you're not going to throw my clothes in the river again are you?" I death-glared him with as much death-glaring ability as I could possibly muster (dear freaking Gackt. I've said the stupidest word in the English language twice!).

"As long as you don't mentally undress me anymore, then no."

Ace blinked a few times, needing a bit of time to process what I'd said with his beyond-slower-than-a-dead-snail-paced-train-of-thought. I swear he's about as intelligent as a glass of gasoline-filled mineral water. "Alright~. Just follow-"

"No. YOU'RE following ME. Because I actually know the way."

"Then why do you want me to come if you know the way?"

"Because I highly doubt people in castles randomly let in suspicious looking persons without invitations unless another resident brings them along. And I have to talk to someone there."

"Oh? Who?"

"...Why exactly did you think I was being vague in the first place, genius?"

And so, off we went. I felt really uncomfortable dragging Ace through the forest after what had happened before, but I highly doubted that I could get into the palace any other way seeing as... well, the albino-donkey guy hated me and I didn't know anyone else there. Besides the queen. But she seems like she's sort of an important figure who wouldn't conveniently be wandering around outside of the castle.

The guards smiled and greeted us kindly—okay, their kind greetings were probably directed more at Ace than me because I drew faces on them with a Sharpie marker I conveniently had in my pocket (isn't it awesome? My SKIRT has pockets!) and stepped on their feet—and let us through the gate, and I began my totally nonchalant quest.

I poked my head into every room, making sure no one saw me (though I suppose I shouldn't have worried much because Ace left and Peter wasn't around, so the whole 'seeing' thing wasn't much of a problem), and found: seven bathrooms, a library, seventeen coat closets (HOW MANY COATS DOES ONE CASTLE NEED?), five stairwells, six kitchens—one of which I left on fire, forty-two bedrooms, and the most disappointing of all—an entire wing full of rooms dedicated to freaking creepy little stuffed animals.

What makes it even MORE sad is that that was where I found who I happened to be looking for. The queen, in case you're an idiot and didn't catch on. "Oh, Miss Toki! We weren't expecting to see you here!" she said, hiding the bear plushie she was holding behind herself.

"Um… Yeah, I did kind of drop in unexpectedly…" You see my dear children, that is what Tokis do. "Do you think you could help me with something?" I glanced uneasily at the hundreds of little glass eyes that were staring into my soul for a moment. "Unless you're busy. Boris is girly enough, I'm sure I could just talk to him."

"We would be delighted to help, Miss Toki. What is it that you need?"

And so, I cut off the story as I always do when someone's helping me with something because I tend to space out during those times and me saying "herp-a-derp I don't remember hurr durr" wouldn't be a very interesting story at all. Well… that's questionable. I mean, come on. Picture me, the amazingly-freaking-awesomest person in Jupitarian Mexico… NAY! OUR ENTIRE SOLAR SYSTEM!

Wait, what was I saying again? Screw it, on with my epic tale.

"Um… Vivaldi, when I said I needed to get ready for a date, I meant I wanted to be more… less-likely to break something. And my neck is included in my list of somethings by default," I said in my almost-to-a-normal-inside-voice-that-took-me-three-hours-to-get-anywhere-close-to-perfecting.

"You are doing fine, Miss Toki." I swear she tried pushing me over, taking advantage of my lack of balance in heels. You see, Toki had this BRILLIANT idea that she was going to go to the queen and learn how to actually act like a reasonable female. Unfortunately that also involved not doing all of a Toki's favorite things, including shouting, encouraging violence, barking at small dogs, drawing faces on people in magic marker, throwing things, NOT wearing high-heeled shoes, and sneezing in unison with people around me.

After thanking (GASP I WAS ACTING GRATEFUL) the purple-haired queen for her assistance I hobbled out into the woods, thanking Gackt and every other god I could think of that the cycle had just changed to noon, and very painfully made my way all the way across the freaking country to the town.

"Oh, hey Toki. You look nice."

My favorite totally-not-gay-looking kitty friend happened to be there. "What are you saying, that I don't look nice ALL the time? I'm like a freaking GOD," I protested, immediately beginning to pet his fur because I was really hyper.

"You really don't know how to take a compliment, huh?" Boris teased, his tail flicking and making a jingly noise.

"Well, I do, but only worthy compliments. Like for example calling me superiorly amazing or something like that."

"I'll keep that in mind. Sorry, I've gotta go. Come back and visit soon."

"Sure."

He continued on his way and with a sigh I decided to double-check the sky. It was still noon.

Then miraculously, as though some mysterious force wanted to make my life easier so I didn't have to narrate a bunch of time spent wandering around in circles it was night time.

In about ten minutes I saw Blood appear in the crowd.

And dear GODS did he look awesome.

/AN/ FINALLY I GOT A CHAPTER FINISHED. Sorry, after all the wait it's more filler crap, but the next chapter will be Toki and Blood's date, I promise! I'll try to get it done soon!


	29. A Message from Our Dear Toki

Hey everyone, it's me, the almighty and amazing Toki (Freaking) Hana. I just thought I'd apologize for spacing out so much while I share my epic love story with my adoring fans. But you see, my dear friend Haru, the oh-so-brilliant one who writes down what I say like that weird computer program that would be totally fun to play with (like, seriously fun) has the attention span of a dead leaf. Alas, we can't ALL be as great as me, so on her behalf I must sinceriably say sorry for this horrid crime of depriving you of my awesomeness.

However, because I love you I am going to share another epic tale of mine that it is considerably easier for me to write myself because it happens. Every freaking day.

Once upon a time there was a magical girl named Toki, who was so fantastically amazing that everyone worshipped the ground she walked on. Heck, they even worshipped the dust particles that at one point touched the dust particles that knew this other particle that came into brief contact with her. That's how freaking awesome this girl was.

Anyway, that's about it. So, if you're waiting for my story about my date, that should be floating around on Haru's schedule…. Hopefully soon. Until then, keep my amazingness-desu-desu in mind. Don't forget it. Ever.

/XD Sorry guys, as Toki said I have the attention span of a dead leaf. Wait a seco-TOKI YOU FREAKING JERK. But… I suppose it's true. I might try getting it done tomorrow evening though. Thanks for all your patience.


	30. Chapter 29

"Ah, Toki. I hope I didn't make you wait long," my almost-as-amazing-as-me boyfriend greeted, tipping his hat, which was basically like his other one only the little symbols on the top were white instead of colorful, to me. "You look especially lovely tonight."

My cheeks turned a touch red. "Thanks. You look really nice too." Indeed, 'twas true. He was wearing a black suit coat with fancy white trim, a black tie, and a blood-red (pfft. Blood. Get it? Hahahaha... I'm so clever.) shirt with a black tie. He offered me his hand, and when I took it he pulled me into a tight hug. He nearly broke both of my feet thanks to those stupid shoes, by the way. But because I'm Toki the gods blessed me in all my awesomeness and decided that I shall be allowed to live. Fantastic, no?

We held hands as we walked to a decently fancy (I had a feeling Blood didn't go all out in consideration of my... Toki-ness) little restaurant. I was quiet (gasp), too focused (gasp) on trying not to hurt myself to think about much else. That's a relief, at least I still had my amazing lack of multitasking.

The faceless waiter of epic-faceless-waiterness took us to a little table in the corner, which Blood probably had reserved judging by the fact that we were so far away from the other mesas occupados. Either that or we were in the smokers' section. I didn't bother asking.

"Hello, my name is [CONFIDENTIAL] and I'll be serving you tonight," he told us. Minus the 'my name is thing, though he said the rest and made me feel like I had a slave. (Please note that I had not in fact been to a restaurant since I was a little girl due to this superiority complex.) "What would you like to drink tonight?"

Blood obviously ordered tea, then looked at me expectantly. However I was much to preoccupied with death glaring at the menu, hoping it would speak to me. Then I remembered my quest, to NOT be a total embarrassment to the Hatter name. I decided against what appeared to be a heavily caffinated carbonated beverage of sorts. "I'll take... a glass of water. Please." Let's see me get hyper off of THAT.

[CONFIDENTIAL] walked off to fetch our drinks and I flipped through the pretty pictures and bright red titles searching for something that sounded appealing. Compared to the stuff I'd been eating at the Hatter's it all looked like crap. But, then, as though god had blessed me once more, I saw something that WASN'T horrible. Did I mention I'm terribly picky when it comes to restaurant food? Blood obviously had managed to choose something much more quickly due to his lack of incompetence, and miraculously by the time our waiter had returned we both were ready to order. Food came much faster than drinks (?), and due to my attempts at not being 'a Toki' I didn't babble incessantly until once more we were graced with the presence of he who shall not be named, carrying whatever Blood ordered and the amazingness that was the chunk of butter-drenched meat with flakes of garlic strewn through it. There were also little green flecks on it and one of those silly little 'garnishes' on the side of the plate.

It probably looked a lot better than you're imagining right now. And it didn't taste like chicken. It tasted like a freaking _angel._ Okay, that sounded better in my head. Screw it all.

El mafioso was smiling at me, creating unusual small-talk as though he was trying to pretend we were a normal couple (let it be known to all those too stupid to realize it themselves, there is NOTHING normal about one as odd as I dating a mafia boss at the bottom of a giant rabbit hole created by a bunny-in-denial-that-claims-to-just-have-giant-ears-but-is-clearly-either-a-rabbit-or-donkey). Silly Blood.

After about ten minutes of his asking about my opinion on the night and asking silly questions like how I had been enjoying my time in Wonderland, he started laughing. And get this, all I said was 'yes'. Seriously, I think he was high.

"Toki, you don't have to act so oddly just because we aren't at home."

"...Blood, I ALWAYS act oddly. I've been doing that since I was old enough to walk, so you'll have to be more specific."

"You've been struggling to refrain from your usual antics all night. Actually, it's sort of sad."

"Sad?"

"I've come to enjoy your useless rambling. You're quite the amusing young lady."

If I had my glasses on I would've pushed them up on my nose all awesomely there. "You think so?" I asked, as though I didn't already know that.

He smiled and I felt his hand touch mine under the table, causing my cheeks to turn red just as the waiter came with our check. Blood pulled out his wallet (I tried peeking over to see where he kept it, but I'm pretty sure he knew exactly what I was doing and put it back into his coat pocket instead), leaving the money and a tip for Mr. [REDACTED] before we got up and walked out.

Sorry for the slightly rushed seeming recap, but when Tokis are trying not to be Tokis it can be quite boring. Like, a regular person boring. Which is really, really dull. Did I mention that it would've been uninteresting?

It was still night time out, actually it was the first time I'd been off of Hatter grounds at night without Ace (unless I'm hallucinating and lying, in which case shut up), so I could barely recognize anything as we walked back through the woods. Blood wrapped his coat around me, holding me close.

Unfortunately, no matter how close he was holding me I was still an accident prone girl in heels that I had little practice wearing walking through the woods. And so, naturally I had to trip and hurt myself.

My ankle twisted and I hit the ground, cringing fom the sharp pain. "Ow~!" I shouted loudly. The Hatter knelt beside me, offering a hand.

"Are you alright?" For once I couldn't call him a moron for asking that question. I took his outstretched hand and he pulled me up, catching me when I almost fell again. "Are you okay to walk?"

I tried taking a step, but my foot buckled when I put pressure on it. "No... I might be able to crawl though. Or hop on one leg," I joked, trying to ignore it. Mister Dupre, always looking for a way to impress me, lifted me up when I said that. I protested at first halfheartedly, but I'll admit that him carrying me all the way back to the mansion was pretty buggering awesome.

The gates came into view and he took me to my room, helping me sit on the bed. "Well, that was my usual level of epic fail for one cycle all balled up into one event..." I muttered. "Thanks."

"You really should try to be more careful." He sat beside me and started playing with a piece of my hair. I leaned on his shoulder, closing my eyes and smiling.

"Toki, being careful? You're funny."

He sighed. "Still, at least put _some_ of your effort toward not injuring yourself."

"Fine." He kissed me when I finally gave into his outrageous request to put forth nonexistent effort, but that was perfectly fine with me. "Despite my battle scars, this was fun. Now, stare at the wall for a minute." Confused, he listened, and I got up and hobbled over to my dresser. I threw off my coat and as quickly as I could excanged my skirt for a pair of shorts (I don't remember where I got these extra clothes, by the way) before stumbling back over to him. "Magic."

He laughed quietly as I attempted to crawl under the covers, and I closed my eyes. "It was fun... thank you."

I was exhausted and fell asleep quickly, and when I woke up, the Hatter was sleeping beside me.

At that point I usually would've pounded him in the face with a pillow, but tere was something else that unsettled me just a BIT more.

/AN/ This turned out a bit strange XD I hope you like it though, I tried to make it a bit longer after such a long wait... Hopefully next chapter takes less time XD


	31. Chapter 30

Bonus Chapter 3-

"Blood, meet my parental figures. Parental figures, this is my Mafia boss-slash-boyfriend, Blood. Isn't he cool? And look at the hat!"

They both said, "…", perfectly in unison. I think they rehearsed it.

"It appears I've caused some awkwardness," Blood noted, deserving a gold star for his superiority in pointing out the obvious.

"… I guess the 'blunt and honest' approach of telling them your occupation was a bad idea, then. Oh well." I shrugged, nonchalantly reaching for Blood's hat of hatliness and awesome existing. Alas, he took it off, holding it out of my reach with a sigh.

The fatherly gestured for Blood to come with him so I assumed it was one of those 'man-to-man' talks that I'd never had the desire to take part in. Before walking away Blood set the hat on my head, and so I sat down and began fangirling over it obsessively. My mom watched me concernedly, as though I was some crazed mental patient. "Toki, where have you been all this time?" she asked, looking about ready to cry. I was in Wonderland for so long I'd almost forgotten how British she sounded.

Despite my short attention span, I couldn't help but feel bad. My excessively long adventures were hard to keep track of, since I had just barely worked on an estimate that every three cycles was a day. With multiple cycles in a row with no change and a lack of basic division skills I'd barely realized that I'd vanished for so long. Not to mention my belief of being comatose and/or on another planet, which I still believe in.

"I was in… the country Blood's from."

"And what country is that?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

She frowned. I remember when I was younger my mom always thought I had schizophrenia; I had imaginary friends for a long time because I was scared to make real ones, I always said I heard voices—sometimes I swear I did, and there were memories like my trip in Wonderland. Do you know how it feels to grow up thinking you were a hallucinatory social freak? It's not something to be particularly proud of.

I imagined she thought that maybe I'd run away and just hallucinated everything, or that 'Blood' was some creep that took advantage of my supposed mental instability that doesn't exist.

"Toki, there are a lot of things you've said I don't believe in, but you've told me them anyway."

"Fine. I was in Wonderland. Good enough for you?"

She didn't reply and I got up, walking toward the staircase. "I really enjoyed it there, too. I had a bunch of friends. I think you would've liked Queen Vivaldi, and the Cheshire cat was just adorable," I said bitterly without looking back. I ran into my room, closing the door and locking it before crawling under my bed and crying.

Even if my family didn't believe me, I knew I at least had Blood… Maybe we could go back to Wonderland, live there. I was hoping to come back, and to tell them I was fine, but it's not like it really mattered. I think that it was more of a relief, that their crazed daughter just disappeared.

I heard knocking and didn't want to answer, but I was hoping maybe it was the Mafioso, so I got up and wiped off my face. "Who… who is it?"

"It's Jake. Toki, open the door."

I opened it a little, just enough for me to see him. "What do you want?"

He looked offended. "Toki, I haven't seen you in two years! What happened to you?"

Two years? Was that really how long I'd been gone? I pushed the door forward a bit more and let him in, realizing that he had changed greatly since I'd last seen him. Instead of nerdy and stupid looking, he was tall and confident. His hair was dark red with bright highlights, the last thing I would have ever expected, and he was wearing punk-style chains and gothic jewelry.

"I could ask the same thing," I said, staring in amazement at his awesome makeover.

"I started a band with some friends. I just got back from practice. Now, what about you?"

"…I was in Wonderland, where a bunch of hot guys were supposed to fall in love with me and people had hearts for clocks and I met the Mad Hatter who's a mafia boss and now I'm dating him and I just recently managed to get back out of the rabbit hole and come back here. That good enough for you?"

I realized, however, that my time spent away would be much harder to make up for back in the real world, and that it would take much more than that for them all to believe me. But I had time, Blood Dupre's hat, and… Crap. I can't think of a third thing for my list. Sorry.

/AN/ That was a bit disorganized and jumpy, sorry xD When I write the bonus chapters I tend to just write whatever comes to mind.

You ever have those times where you're like, "Oh look, that funny commercial's on TV! Hey, Mr. Robber, you want to watch it with me?". Not necessarily THAT particular situation. Because I've never had that either. Isn't it a touch absurd? I mean, what kind of robber watches commercials? OBVIOUSLY they need to steal stuff for a reason. I think I sat on my point and then got up and walked away... Screw it.

Anyway, I usually would've pounded his face in with the nearest pillow and or sock, but I was more preoccupied with the hat (plus, I wasn't wearing socks and I figured trying to take his to hit him with would be highly inappropriate), which was sitting on the nightstand.

Right there.

So freaking close.

Unprotected.

_Lonely._

It was practically crying out to me, "Toki! Toki, take me and hide meeeeeeeeeeeeeeee." Naturally I answered the calls of the amazing desu hat desu and reached out for it. Alas, Toki has short arms and thus couldn't reach it. I decided to get up and try grabbing it, completely forgetting about my foot and tripping. By the way, it didn't hurt as badly as it did the day before. I could've stood up just fine if I hadn't been so clumsy. Just a thought.

I reached up and grabbed the headwear instead of doing the logical thing and standing, sliding it under the bed as though that was the most incredible hiding spot ever. I then proceeded to scream 'rape' as loudly as I could (which, might I add, is VERY loud. Like, take what you're thinking of times three... never mind, I hate math) in order to awaken Señor Mafioso. It worked, not as well as I had hoped, but after a minute he got up.

"Toki, what are you screaming about?" he asked as though I had nothing to be upset about.

"Oh, you know, some creep invited himself to sleep with me," I said as though he was an idiot.

"I apologize; I thought you looked so lonely though." A smooth talker indeed, he was.

"Right. You know, Blood, I thought we talked about this already."

I expected him to make one of his suave comebacks like he usually did, but instead he said nothing. I sat down silently, and after a few moments he grabbed me, pulling me back as he leaned over me with a hand on my face. "Miss Toki, with all due respect we had only addressed _this_." He kissed me and I tried to push him off, failing epically for a while until finally he stopped and sat up.

At that point I was crying, horrified and feeling powerless, as I watched him go to leave. "Blood... I don't... I don't think I can handle this..." I spat, narrowing my eyes. He glanced back with a straight face before turning away.

When he was gone I buried my face in my pillow for a bit, sobbing too hard to do much else. I had no idea what had happened, couldn't make sense of anything.

So, I did what I always did when I needed help. I decided to go to Gray- something about him made me feel secure and comfortable. I ran past the servants, ignoring the pain, ignoring the confused stares and managing not to trip my entire blurry way through the forest somehow. I had taken my map with me (wow, I was using some logic skills) and took it out, trying to find Clover Tower since my mind was so clouded.

I didn't pay attention to the map's slightly major change in layout, nor did I realize when I reached it that the tower had in fact gotten a bit shorter, and changed shape. I wondered maybe if it was just some remodeling, actually, though I'm not sure why I didn't catch on that something happened when I noticed the giant pillars with clock faces on them.

The door, however, had remained in the same place, and I rushed inside. There weren't any servants running around, or Gray and Nightmare for that matter. And it also didn't look like a leprechaun had vomited on everything.

I kept poking my head into rooms (about twenty-five) until I found someone, and then I proceeded to run over and tackle him in an epic Toki hug, because for some reason I was convinced he was Gray. "Grayyy~!" I sobbed, starting to cry a little bit.

"Who are you? Leave at once!" he demanded, pushing me off.

"What? Wait, you're not Gray... Where is he? Or Nightmare?"

"In the Country of Clovers, where they belong. Now, I'm busy."

I didn't want to stay and hear any more about whatever had happened to Wonderland, and did as he asked. But, as I was walking out the door I happened to crash into someone that I usually would've hated to see.

"Toki? What's wrong?" Ace asked when I buried my face in his chest. "Hahahaha~, did you have a fight with the Hatter?"

I said nothing, but the idiot made me cry again so I punched him. Hard. I wish it'd been in the face, but sadly I just went for his shoulder. "Come on," I demanded, grabbing his hand and starting to walk away.

"Huh? Why?"

"Because I want to go on an adventure and if I go with you that will definitely happen."

"Hahahaha~, I guess." He deposited the bag I hadn't noticed he was carrying onto one of the randomly placed tables and walked in the exact opposite direction of the door. Usually I would've been irritated, but his stupidity made me feel just the slightest bit better.

"This way." We walked outside into what was now the evening and I decided not to give him directional advice like I usually did. After all, the last place we could possibly end up was the convenient location of Blood's general area. And I wasn't quite ready to deliver my awesome revenge yet.

I was surprised that we wandered around lost for about an eon and yet still it wasn't night time. And no wild animals decided to try and maul Ace.

But then, as though something always had to go wrong conveniently between my break-time in telling this story, the knight grabbed me and decided it would be a fantastic time to grope me.

Hooray. MORE sexual harassment.

/AN/ Not very funny, sorry XD It was hard, trying to keep Toki upset while still throwing in a few jokes. It helps that I'm like that, at least, so I have some reference. /Though I've never had a fight in a relationship, because… never had a relationship. So if I ever do anything that seems horribly off sorry XD Anyway, I'll try to keep it up with faster updates :3


	32. Chapter 31

You know, judging by Ace's previous actions toward me I probably should've expected that of him. But, I suppose most people aren't expecting their... I hate to say this, like really, it's so painful I could die a little bit. Or, as I have stated in a previous time, die a lot. But, Ace was sort of like an acquaintance... that I got along with really well... in a way. Maybe.

Okay, screw it all. Ace was probably one of my best friends. But I'm not really popular (note that that was spoken to bring him down a few more levels).

And you know, USUALLY when you're upset over a fight with a person very close to you and go to your friend for help, he doesn't try and violate you twenty minutes after you leave.

SERIOUSLY.

WHY DO PEOPLE I LIKE KEEP DOING THAT.

"Ace, get off, you pervert," I snapped, trying to push away his arm. Unfortunately, I'm an unathletic otaku that pretended to be a gatekeeper for like, three cycles. And Ace was a freaking knight. So basically, I was screwed.

"Hahahaha~. Why, what's wrong Toki?" he asked stupidly, seeming not to be able to notice why I was offended at all.

"Really? Are you that dumb?" As I said this, by the way, while attempting to stand on one leg and kick him in... places.

"I'm not dumb~. Actually, I think you are, hahaha~."

That. Laugh.

"What do you mean? At least I know when I'm making people uncomfortable."

"But it's your fault. You're the one that went off alone into the woods with a man that loves you."

Even with the 'every freaking hot guy in Wonderland and one slightly creepy lady will fall in love with you' thing, I didn't really think Ace would feel that way. Of course, if I hadn't always been with that stupid Hatter I probably would've gotten to know Ace a bit better. Boris and Gray, too.

"You? Pfft, you don't love me. Sure, we're friends, but-"

"No, I do love you Toki," he corrected, removing his hands from my chest. I thought about making a run for it, there was no way he'd be able to follow me through the woods without me holding his hand, but one of the little voices in my head told me I should stay, and I ALWAYS listen to the voices. Unless Ted shows up. Ted trumps the voices.

"You know, the last outsider that was here said I was lying too. But she was right; you're the first outsider I'm in love with, so congratulations~."

What the heck? Was this one of those stupid gameshows? Because trust me, if I was going to be on one I would've much preferred a million bucks to Ace. No matter how cool his coat was.

"Sorry, but I can't say the feeling's mutual."

"I understand. Blood always gets the outsiders, doesn't he? Funny, considering Alice…"

I flinched. "Everyone keeps talking about Alice, but… what happened to her?"

The knight shrugged, returning from his distant expression to his usual derpy one. "I can't say."

"Why not?"

"Because, if I do then some people will be mad at me and I won't be able to change."

"…What?"

He smiled brightly. "It's a secret~."

I groaned inwardly, punching him in the shoulder. "Then you're of no use to me."

"Hahaha~, that hurt Toki." For once, instead of complaining about his irritating laugh, I laughed too. It was sort of… cute. In a way. Somewhat.

Unfortunately, things at that point weren't horrible for me, so something had to happen. I saw a flash, and then a few seconds later came the most terrifying sound.

I clung to Ace instinctively, much to his confusion. "Huh? Are you scared of thunder?" he asked, tilting his head. I shook my head quickly.

"No…I'm not… I'm perfectly fine, shut up…" I lied, making him frown.

Just then it started pouring, and I wished more than anything to be back at home.

"You always seem to find trouble, don't you, Miss Toki?" I turned to look, seeing Blood wearing his stupid smug look that made me want to hit him.

"What's it matter to you?" I crossed my arms, looking down at the ground. Couldn't he freaking leave me alone for TWO cycles? At least?

"I saw the storm coming and I was worried about you." Screw him for being so thoughtful. He turned to Ace, narrowing his eyes slightly. "Thank you for taking care of her, but I'll be bringing her home now."

Ace grinned. "Challenge accepted, Hatter." There was another flash of lighting and he grabbed my arm as Blood pulled out his machine gun.

The knight drew his golden-yellow hilted sword with pretty little hearts on it, giving Blood a look that said "bring it on". Before the next boom of thunder they were fighting; it was intense—like, watch the music video for Cool Guys Don't Look at Explosions and multiply it by seventeen intense.

Okay, that's a horrible choice of example. But that song is so freaking true. Which is why no matter how awesome anyone else may be I will ALWAYS love Sebastian Michaelis.

Just a thought.

In any case, I was too busy trying to hide from the storm to watch. I heard gunshots and bullets clanging against metal (it sounds sort of pretty, actually) through the pounding rain, and I was scared for both of them. It felt like three years before it stopped.

I felt a hand on my shoulder and spazzed, turning around and punching Blood impulsively. "I-I'm sorry!" I looked away, and he took my hands in his.

"Come on, you need to get out of the rain before you get sick again." He took off his coat—which was drenched, but the material was at least thick enough that it kept out some of the water on the inside—and put it on my shoulders before lifting me up.

We were silent as he carried me back to the mansion. It was frustrating; I know it sounds selfish, but I was still angry, even if he'd gone to find me. Why didn't he have anything to say?

I was expecting him to take me to my room, but instead he carried me with him to what looked like a big changing room-type thing. He set me on my feet and walked over to a cabinet, pulling out a towel and offering it to me.

"What's this for?" I scoffed, staring at him disapprovingly.

"You should relax in the bath for a bit. It's been a long day." I waited for him to ask if he could accompany me, but he surprised me and didn't. Instead, he put his hand on my head and messed up my hair a bit. "I'm sorry, Toki. What I did earlier was uncalled for, I shouldn't have done that."

I blinked at him. "It… I forgive you. You came to rescue me, after all."

He smiled his cute Jiro smile. "Thank you."

As he was walking away I did something I bet you all were either expecting or not expecting. Because you had to be doing one.

"Um… Blood, would you… mind… staying with me…" I muttered, my face red.

He looked at me confused, raising an eyebrow. "Hm? Ah, so only _you_ are allowed to make physical advances?"

"Thatwasn'."

"I'm only teasing. Though, I will stay if that's what you want."

AN/ XD I obviously wasn't watching the Bathtime Shenanigans scene in Heart again. /Well, actually I really wasn't. Though I accidentally screwed up my game on my laptop so all of Ace's and Julius's scenes were replaced with Blood's xD A shame, too, because I love Ace lol. /Man… I have no idea what I'm going to do for the next chapter XD/ On another note, if you like the manga series but can't play the games, I think you might enjoy the flash dating sim Wonderland Days. It's not quite as mature as HNKNA, but it's cute and well made :3


	33. Chapter 32

Okay, so take what I said from about… let's say, Blood NOT taking me to my room and throw it out of your mind completely. It's all wishful thinking, my dears. That is in fact exactly where he took me, informing me that I should change out of my wet clothes and apologizing for the morning in a similar manner as I just told you to forget about. So, you MIGHT want to go back and rethink about what you forgot. While you're at it, bring me a death-stick and then go rethink your entire life.

I, however, had other plans because it was still storming (though the thunder had fortunately gone away) and my room had too big of a window to ignore it. I decided to go take a nice, warm shower (did I mention that I have in fact bathed since I got to Wonderland? I'm not a creepy dirt-ball. I know I mentioned eating. But sadly, _all_ of my bodily functions were still existent; I just don't think you need to know when I need to pee. That was SOO thirty something chapters ago. Like, seriously.), so I grabbed a t-shirt and some pants (really, where did these clothes keep coming from?) and walked off to the bathroom.

Now, let me tell you, even the Hatter mansion's cuarto de baño is amazing. They have like, a giant changing room and two showers. Plus a mysterious room in the back that probably isn't very mysterious but I've never actually taken the time to explore.

It was shortly after I had gotten undressed (I had a towel, perverts.) I heard mysterious noises coming from said room. And so, I decided to investigate even though I probably should've put two and two together. As previously stated, I HATE MATH.

I walked in.

"!"

I looked away, my eyes melting a little bit. I'm pretty sure I had a touch of a nosebleed too. Okay, in case you HADN'T caught on, I had in fact walked in on Blood and his rabbit friend bathing. You know, not wearing any clothes and such.

"Ah, Toki. Why don't you come join us?"

I think my response can best be described as this: "." I'm always so full of insightful words.

"That was an… interesting sound."

"Bloood, don't le' her come iin," Elliot said drunkenly. "I dun like hurr."

But, the swimming po- bath was so big and warm looking. And the water was pink. So, I did what I was required to in order to irritate the donkey and decided to join them.

After about five minutes I realized that they had a nice little floating pot of alcoholic tea there. Fortunately though, all I had to do was say a choice phrase: "Elliot's so drunk right now", "Elliot is TOTALLY a rabbit!", or "If he's not a rabbit then he's definitely a donkey!". Using a slightly better word I might add.

"U'm not drun'k darn it," he attempted to say. Blood, who was slightly less intoxicated surprisingly, seemed irritated by our arguing though.

"Elliot, why don't you go finish that paperwork you were working on earlier?" he "suggested" with a slight glare.

"Fi'e." He grabbed his towel and angrily left, succeeding in making it just a little bit of a crapload more awkward.

"So… Blood, what's your… Fourth favorite colo-"

"Toki, if I say I enjoy the color rainbow will you be satisfied?"

"Um, DUH. But now I don't have any small talk."

He sighed. "Would you like some tea?"

"Blood, I'm underage."

"But the twins drink it all the time. And besides, silly, you can't be underage for tea."

"But I CAN be for whatever you added TO the tea."

He smiled vampirically, offering me a cup despite the fact I had clearly said no. And you know, I don't think I made my hatred of tea very subtle, looking back on it. "What's the worst that could happen?" I could tell now by the way his voice was all weird that he was finally drunk. "Are you scared that you'll get arrested? We're in the mafia, my dear~."

"… If I drink some of the freaking tea will you stop?"

"Of course."

And so, I took his spiked tea. Let it be known that the legal drinking age in Wonderland is officially… eighteen. Which I'm pretty sure I would've been at that point.

You know, tea's not so bad when mixed with who-knows-what. But that stuff was pretty strong.

I don't really remember much. I know we had some strange conversation of the velocity of a squirrel hitting Aido's face being totally useless to everyday life, and when I woke up I was in his room (Blood's, not Aido's) on the bed. With a horrible splitting headache.

Oh, yay. My first hangover.

/AN/ That chapter would've probably been better if I hadn't scrapped what I had written. But I couldn't think of any more to write so it would've been a dead-end D/

On another note, I have Macromedia Flash 8 now, and I'm making a dating sim :3 I also have a dress-up game, and I might make one of Toki xD Reviewers get free cookies and hugs!


	34. Chapter 33

"BLOOD WHY IS IT SO FREAKING BRIGHT?" I yelled, my head immediately beginning to explode a bit because of the awful headache I happened to be suffering from. I buried myself under the blankets, emitting an odd humming noise like an irritated bumblebee, and curled up into a ball.

"Miss Toki?" I heard he-with-an-amazing-hat shout back (okay, so he probably wasn't shouting. But whatever.) "Are you quite alright?" I feel the need to note the extreme amusement in his voice at my hangover.

"Nooooooooooooooo. I hattteee youuuuuuuuuuuu."

"You were the one drinking, if I do recall."

"You. Gave. IT. TO. ME."

"You accepted it from me."

I tried to think of a witty comeback, but all I came up with were the lovely options of "your mom" and "your face". So I combined the two in my fit of not wanting to think.

"My... face's mother has nothing to do with this, Miss Toki." I heard the Hatter walk over to the bed and sit down beside me, imagining that he had some really dumb expression on his face for my personal entertainment, and I pushed my hand out from under the covers to poke him. Because I'm Toki and it made sense at the time.

"Miss Toki, might I ask why I can't so much as touch you without being accused of sexual harassment, but you can poke me there?"

"EwwwIdidn'tmeantoyoupervertshutupIcan'tevenseeyouyoufreak." (What I said.)

"Ewwwidmeeohahshu'upIcan'evnseyoufeeak." (What I sounded like.)

Toki+an awful headache=total nonsense, in case you hadn't guessed. I'm not even sure if that's like, a valid hangover symptom. Maybe I was still drunk. Whatever the case, no one cares. After Blood informed me he was only being a perv and that I actually just poked his leg as planned I made him close every curtain in the room and turn off anything that generated light (including the digital clock I had insisted be used in the house, but that was more because I wanted to irritate him than the brightness) and took a nap.

I woke up in a cycle, drowsily creeping over to Blood's desk and leaning over his shoulder as he worked on an immense stack of papers I didn't find relevant to being a mafia boss. "Blood~, what're you doing?" I asked, slowly reaching my hand that was out of his sight toward his headgear.

"I had a few things that needed signed, so I took care of them while waiting for you." (Read "so I took care of them while you were sleeping so you didn't obliterate my work"). He lifted the hat off the desk just as I reached for it, never looking up from his work, making me fall over because my balance is equivalent to that of a newly hatched chicken, but at least he caught me. "How are you feeling?" He set down his pen, which in order to follow the theme naturally had a little hat. I was beginning to think at that point that he had like, a hat fetish or something.

"Better."

"That's good. Would you care for some tea or anything?"

"I'm never drinking your "tea" again. I thought this was established." (Was it?)

"Very well, suit yourself." He grinned evilly. "You're quite fun when you're drunk, though."

I tossed him a death glare and crossed my arms, sitting on the ground beside his chair and kicking his feet a few times. "Tokis are always fun, I'll have you know."

Just then my favorite faceless knocked on the door and came in, carrying a tray of the evil leafy-juice that Blood was addicted to. "Aido~!" I shouted, giving him an amazing hug. Well, he stepped to the side a bit so I didn't really get to the hugging, but whatever.

"Er… Hello, Miss Toki. I brought you your tea, sir." Blood nodded and the servant set the tray on his desk, looking (does it count as 'looking'?) at me again. "Miss Toki, there's someone waiting at the gate for you."

"Ew. Who is it?"

"A soldier from Heart Castle." Mr. Hatter seemed interested at this and got up.

"I believe I'll accompany you, if you wouldn't mind," he announced, coming over to me and pulling me to his side. I love when he gets all jealous, it's awesome.

"Um… alright." And so, we skipped walked outside, where we were greeted by the Heart Castleian soldier.

There was also someone else, though. Because life's a freaking bugger, you know.

"Hahahaha~, hi Toki~!"

/AN. Yeah, this chapter's sort of… Meh. I set it down for too long again and ended up writing it in three parts. I found Toki's original self the other day… I was writing a Final Fantasy VIII fanfic about my delinquent persona Haru, and she sounded like a slightly-worse written version of Toki XD And had a friend obsessed with bagels O.o


	35. Chapter 34

Blood stepped in front of me protectively, transforming his cane into a gun all cool-like. "You've got a lot of nerve showing your face her, knight."

"Hahahaha~." He narrowed his red eyes, smiling at me. "I only came to see Miss Outsider. You keep hogging her all the time, Hatter~."

"Dude, you freaking groped me last time I saw you!" I shouted, clinging to Blood tightly. "Why the bugger does it seem okay to come back?"

"Oh right~." You know how I said his laugh was kind of cute before? Yeah, I take that back. When he had a psycho-rapist face it was more like serial-killer-standing-over-your-bed DISTURBING.

"Miss Toki, please go wait inside."

"But-"

"Just do it," he insisted as Ace pulled out his sword. He propelled himself forward with an epic kick on the ground, sliding toward me. I felt bad, but I quickly listened to Blood's order (maybe I'll call it a friendly suggestion, to make me sound less obedient) and made a mad dash for the house. I heard the machine gun go off a few times, followed by Ace laughing as I ran inside.

I quickly went for my room, attracting the attention of a few servants, and fell on the floor when I got there. I knew Ace was stronger than Blood, so the only real advantage my Mafioso could have was speed, and that was given Ace wasn't faster than him. I've never really seen either of them running at the same time... maybe I'll organize a footrace or something. That'd be interesting.

I jumped when I looked up and saw the twins staring at me. I guess I forgot to close the door, either that or I was just being really unobservant when they came in. "Sis?" They sat on either side of me.

"What's wrong~?"

"Did the boss make you mad again?"

I shook my head, trying not to laugh (I imagine I made a pretty funny face in the process) at that. "He's fighting Ace right now.

"Huh~? You mean the knight?"

"Yeah, that would be Ace."

"Eww, I hope blondie-chickie-rabbit doesn't get to be in charge when he dies!"

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'WHEN HE DIES'? YOU GUYS ARE BUGGERING AWFUL LITTLE JERKS, GET OUT! HE'S TOTALLY NOT GONNA DIE, YOU KNOW WHAT I'LL GO BUGGERING SAVE HIM MYSELF SO HA!" I shouted, suddenly inspired to get myself killed. But the important thing was, I would die like a hero. An awesome hero. With an axe. Halberd, actually, but who cares, right?

And so, I slid my trusty weapon (which I'd never actually used) and returned to the front door, peeking through the window. Blood didn't seem to be doing so well, judging by the fact that Ace had him on the ground and panting heavily at that point, and so I did my best to (oh dear Gackt, the third time!) muster my courage and heroically threw the door open.

Actually, no. I just sort of opened the door like a regular person and walked out, almost managing to fall on my face (sort of like that one time when I was on vacation on this island... the doctor was really cute). The important thing is, I'm Toki Hana, so my exiting ability was still 20% cooler than that of anyone else ever.

Fortunately for me, neither of the guys seemed to notice me when I came out. Ace was laughing like a freaky sociopath and was coming closer to the Hatter with his blade. I inched around behind him, thank the gods that Blood didn't give me away when he saw me, and prepared myself for stabbing. However, it was then that Ace DID notice me.

"Hahaha~, what are you doing, Toki?"

"Oh, you know, just... Stargazing."

"But it's noon~, haha~."

"THEN I'M FREAKING BIRDWATCHING, GOT A PROBLEM WITH IT?" I then proceeded with my attack, succeeding in tripping. Awesomely enough, I tripped in the same direction that he dodged and managed to land a nice blow right across his stupid chest. Despite the fact that he was a freaking pervert that just tried killing my boyfriend, I still felt a little bad though. He sat on the ground for a minute, either dying or contemplating something (I wished it was the former), and then looked up at me and laughed. I realized that my awesomeness had actually only managed to cut his shirt open and leave a tiny little cut, feeling slightly less bad, but he was apparently impressed.

"Wow, Toki! You're the first person besides Gray that could actually hit me! Hahaha~, I guess that means you're stronger than the Hatter!"

And if that's not an ego boost, I don't know what is. So take that Blood, I'm stronger than you. Hah.

After that Blood got up and we finally convinced Ace through a long, confusing barely-a-conversation-at-all-more-like-talking-in-circles conversation that he should go leave and go on an adventure (minus the go on an adventure part, but I know he'll manage to find one). "Are you okay?" I asked him loudly, standing on my tip-toes in an attempt to brush down a piece of his hair that got messed up.

"What were you thinking?"

"I was thinking something along the lines of, 'I'm Toki Freaking Hana! I'm in the freaking mafia! I can totally do this! But this'll be my first time stabbing someone. I wonder what it feels like. Oh well-"

"You know what I meant," he cut me off, with a weird slightly panicky and very adorable look in his eyes.

"I'm fine, Blood. It's not like he hit me or anything. Besides, I did better than you~. I appreciate the effort though."

He didn't seem amused like he usually did, so I was sort of worried. "That isn't the point. You can't be so reckless in a fight; if I recall correctly people from your world can't be reborn when they die."

Daww. He was worried about me. I almost cried a little happy tear. "Why is that any different than if you would've died?"

"I would just have my clock repaired and come back."

"Yeah, as a total stranger! If _I_ do recall correctly, you weren't doing so well when I showed up! What do you think I would've done if you died?" The way he said that he would just come back really made me mad; geez, he can be such a jerk sometimes!

"You could just leave Wonderland, go home and forget about all of this."

I was silent, trying to pierce into his soul with a death glare, until finally I gave up and realized I would never develop laser vision like that. "Blood… You know what, fine, I'm sorry for trying to help you out, okay? I feel so freaking useless, I might as well just go home anyway! Are you happy?" I didn't wait for a reply; instead, I stormed off into the woods angrily. I didn't go very far, because I was pretty sure I got my point across and figured I would just wait for a bit and go back, but after a short while I sat on the ground. "Stupid Blood."

"So, Toki, are you following me now? Hahaha." I was silent. "Toki?" He-with-the-freaky-laugh knelt down in front of me and put his hand on my chin, tilting my head up to look at him. I could (grossly enough) smell blood on his coat, and I really hoped (but doubted) that it was from his cut.

"L-leave me alone," I muttered, pushing his hand off.

"What's wrong? Did you make the Hatter mad by ignoring him?"

"Shut up." I pulled my knees up to my face and looked away from him.

"Hahaha, you're so mean." Again, I was silent. "What are you doing?"

"Ace, DO YOU KNOW WHAT FREAKING SHUT UP LOOKS LIKE? NO? IT LOOKS LIKE YOUR FACE. SO THERE."

Don't ask where that came from. I think a friend of mine said that to me once.

He grinned and stood up, offering me his hand. "Do you want me to spit on it or something?"

"Of course not. I'm just going to take you back to Heart Castle." He got that freaky look in his eyes, but I didn't protest because I was an idiot and left my weapon behind. So, I let him pull me up reluctantly.

"Why? What do you want from me?"

"I think you know the answer to that, Toki."

Bugger.

/AN/ Geez… this was a long one O.o 1,414 words, in one chapter? What the bugger happened to me? XD So, this took a different turn then I thought it would, but whatever. I think the inspiration came from the Panic! At the Disco and Of Monsters and Men songs I was listening to… A few references were made, 20% cooler is My Little Pony; the "do you know what shut up looks like" thing was from when my friend Luna took me and my sister to Tekkoshocon 2012; and the island thing is a reference to my new Toki story "Welcome to Wonderful Waffle Island", a Harvest Moon Tree of Tranquility fanfic (if you're interested in more Toki, you don't have to play the game to get the story, so just check out my story list :3). Thanks for reading, please review :3


	36. Chapter 35

"Ace, can you hand me another cookie?" I asked, practically drooling over the delicious biscuits that he had very intelligently placed out of my reach on the table. "Uh, please." I glanced awkwardly at the Queen, who had also happened to join us.

Right, I guess you probably want to know exactly why I was enjoying tea and cookies with the family of Heart Castle (well, more so the cookies than the tea was being injeste- enjoyed). You know how Ace showed up and was all epic-I'm-gonna-kidnap-you-hahaha~ before? Yeah, he sort of derped out again right after that and I decided I would hang out with him since he wasn't actively sexually harassing me, and I really didn't feel like going home and making Blood apologize.

So I made cookies at the castle after dragging the knight there. They turned out pretty freaking awesome, too, I might add.

"Miss Toki, we are quite pleased that you have come to visit us today," Vivaldi and the voices in her head announced.

"Um… we… is… are pleased to be here too?" She laughed at this, and then Ace finally gave me my cookie.

"Hahaha~, see Toki? Aren't you glad I came to get you?"

"More like stalked me home and threatened me, but whatever."

"Hahaha~."

Vivaldi glared at him all epically, making me like her just a bit more. "Your idiocy astounds us, Knight. Be silent!"

"Hehe… you got yelled at," I teased snarkily, sticking my tongue out at him before quickly turning back to the queen as to avoid losing my own head. "So… Uh… Queen Vivaldi—"

"Please, simply call us Vivaldi."

"Okay. So, Vivaldi, what are your favorite color…s?"

"Our favorite color?" She had to think for a moment. FOR THE GODS' SAKE PEOPLE IT'S NOT A HARD QUESTION. HOW HARD DO YOU REALLY HAVE TO THINK? I guess they are related to Blood though, and he takes twenty minutes to figure out whether he wants sugar or honey in his freaking tea. And get this, he always picks honey. So why even debate it? Geez, I'm surrounded by idiots! "We like the color purple."

"Purple, awesome. Like eggplants and Barney the Dinosaur."

"Hahaha~, red's better," Ace chimed in, and I really hoped he would get like, detention or something.

"Meh, personally I believe black is the best. I mean, it's all like "I'm barely even a color." Having hue is so mainstream."

I wasn't sure if I offended the queen, or if she just felt like glaring at the bush I was sitting in front of. "Black is detestable."

"You're just saying that because she disagreed with you."

Fortunately for me the albino bunny decided to come and save me from the wrath of liking a different color than the queen. "The King requested to see you immediately, your majesty," he announced, his ear twitching when he saw me. "He says it is quite important."

I almost let out a sigh of relief when she got up. "Please excuse us," she muttered (or at least, as close to muttering as she could get. She was the only other person I knew that used my typical tone of voice) before taking her leave.

"Crap!" I proceeded to shout, as soon as she was gone.

"What's wrong?" Ace blinked at me.

"I forgot to ask if I could borrow a room… I don't want to go back to the Hatter mansion yet," I vented, biting my lip angrily. "I blame your stupid face. And Peter's gone too… Bugger all of you."

"Haha, if you want you can sleep in my room!" Naturally, for the sake of Tokis everywhere, I slapped him for that.

"Perv!" I yelled, followed by a punch.

"What do you mean?" I punched him again. "We sleep together in a tent all the time, don't we?"

"Yeah, that was before you made sexual advances toward me."

"I'm sorry about that, haha~."

I put on my Toki thinking cap for about three minutes before giving up. "You know what, whatever. But if you do anything creepy AT ALL I _will_ impale you with something."

"You're so mean."

"… Screw you."

He stood up and pushed in his chair. "Well then, I'm going to go practice with some of the guards. Bye!" I laughed silently, because I knew that when he said he was going to go practice he meant he was going to go get lost. I got up too, because I was lonely, and nosed around for a bit until I found entertainment in a giant hedge maze.

"Gods, these bushes are awesome!" I announced to Mint-Bunny and Captain Hook as I wandered around uselessly.

"Hahaha~, aren't they?"

"Ace, I thought you left."

"I got lost too!"

"Dude, I'm totally not lost."

"Really? Then how do we get out of here?"

"…"

Okay, so I was lost. Whatever.

AN/ Another slightly longer than usual chapter. Sorry if this isn't up-to-par quality, I was half focused on fighting vampires in AdventureQuest XD Anyway, sorry I got rid of Peter and Vivaldi so quickly; they don't have much use to the story, so I'm just sort of fitting them in as a bit of filler to drive the plot ^^' Pretty soon it'll be time for the story to progress even more! Thanks for reading, please review!


	37. Chapter 36

"Okay, we're definitely lost," I announced after me and the knight walked around for about… two cycles. Yes, it took me that long to admit it to him. But in my defense, Ace enjoys making fun of me when I do stuff wrong and honestly, would YOU want to listen to that? 'Hahaha~, your sense of direction's just as bad as mine, hahaha~.'

Hahaha~.

Haha~.

Haha~.

IT NEVER. FREAKING. STOPS. FOR THE LOVE OF LORD SMOOZE, WHAT IS SO FREAKING FUNNY?

"Wow, so you really didn't know where you were going! Ha—"

"Shut up before I shove a branch down your throat," I threatened, beginning to scour one of the hedges for a suitable snack for my companion.

"I would rather you not do that. Wait, I think we go this way!" He started walking down a path that I'm pretty sure we just came from, but since I was lost too I just decided to follow him. "This is fun~."

"… Fun. Right." I was tired, with Ace, and walking around in a hedge maze that smelled like flowers. What part of that sounds appealing? Okay, so maybe the maze thing could be cool, but you guys don't know how totally obnoxious Ace is! Like, seriously, I want you to pretend you're me for a minute. Now picture a really tall guy in an amazing coat walking up to you laughing like an idiot about nothing, then go along with it when he asks you to 'go on an adventure'. Now multiply it by seventeen-thousand.

After walking in eight circles I finally gave up and sat down in the dirt (needless to say, I needed a change of clothes pretty badly). "That's it, we're gonna die," I announced to the entire premises. I don't think anyone really cared though, because I know for a fact that they could hear me through some bushes.

"What's wrong, are you tired?"

"What do you think?" And so, I was scooped off the ground like a Yorkie standing in the middle of an open field. "Not cool, bro, put me down," I protested angrily. "Seriously, I'm… scared of heights. Or something."

I have this way of making awesome arguments, don't I? I guess it just comes with being me. "Oh, is that why you're so short?"

Yes, he went there. He just HAD to make a short joke. See, that's why I hate tall people; they think they're so special just because they're bigger than all of us. However, he didn't realize that I was in fact _very_ tired and thus _incredibly_ over-emotional. So I began to cry, and we all know how good I am at muffling sound. "I'm not that short, am I?" I sobbed, clinging to his coat tightly. "I mean, I know I'm not tall, buuttttt…"

"Don't cry, Toki!" He looked horribly alarmed. "I was only kidding!" Ace's thoughts: 'Oh crap, she's more obnoxious than me, hahaha~.'

Well, probably not. But who cares, right? Even better, I heard footsteps approaching, meaning someone decided to either A, come kill me to get me to shut up; or B, rescue me and kill Ace. Or the slightly less appealing C, but I'm sure you guys know why I didn't want to mention that.

"Toki? Where have you been?"

"Blood, really? Get lost. Literally." I crossed my arms and turned away, even though he looked like he'd come there in a pretty big hurry. I was still pretty mad.

"Hahaha~, the Hatter's here! Do you want to play again?" Ace held me up with one hand and pulled out his weapon.

"Put her down." Mr. Dupre also partook in pulling out a dangerous object.

"Um… Hold on guys, let's not do this in the maze. If you break it we'll all have our heads removed," I advised uselessly.

Unfortunately, neither of them listened and I was discarded in a safe corner.

Seriously, couldn't we have gotten somewhere I could SLEEP first?

/AN. A lot of Blood vs. Ace going on in the past few chapters, sorry if it's getting repetitive D: I'll try to move on soon XD


	38. Chapter 37

Now, I don't know about you, but I was about sick of their constant fighting. So, I decided that out of all of us it was _my_ turn to take the role of 'responsible adult'. Pfft, I'm funny aren't I? But no one else seemed to want it, so it was there for the taking. "Guys, as the responsible adult here I think you two should stop," I yelled, but I was promptly ignored. "GUYS, WOULD YOU BUGGERING STOP IT?" Ignore.

"GUYS IF YOU DON'T FREAKING CUT IT OUT RIGHT NOW I'M GOING TO DISOWN BOTH OF YOU, GO TO THE AMUSEMENT PARK, AND DATE BORIS!" _That_ got their attentions.

"Toki, that-"

"Blood, shut your face and apologize."

"How can I apologize if I can't speak?" Anyone else want to punch him?

"JUST SAY YOU'RE FREAKING SORRY TO ACE. It's not... that hard. And Ace, you have to apologize to him too even though he's a _jerk_ and I'm _mad_ at him _still_ because he doesn't seem to get why I'm so _upset_ by his _stupidity_." I gave Blood a raspberry, like the mature adult I am.

"Miss Toki, I came here to see _you_, not the knight."

I death-glared him with all my might- it was like, Komui Lee if someone started flirting with Lenalee. That epic.

"Fine. I am sincerely... sorry," he muttered to Ace's feet indignantly. Wow, he must really love me.

"Hahahaha~, don't worry, I'm not mad~!" He glanced at me and scratched his head. "I guess I have to say I'm sorry too or Toki might try killing me again, hahaha~."

"Close enough; you helped me make cookies." Blood appeared as though he felt ripped off, but I didn't really care. Even though he came all the way across the country to... I guess he thought he was saving me. But whatever, he was still a stupid jerk and deserved every minute of my disposition toward him. "Now," I said, feeling particularly evil, "you guys have to hug and be friends or my above offer still stands."

If it were any other two people in Wonderland there's no way I would've gotten away with that, but Blood was actually pretty clingy and Ace really wanted to hang around with an outsider. So, I won.

Okay, so I lied. I didn't really win that argument. Seriously though, wouldn't that be funny? So I just sort of pretended they hugged in my primitive little fangirl mind and… I emitted a loud squee. They blinked. In. Freaking. Unison.

"Yeah! I got you guys to blink at the same time!"

"…Cool, hahaha~." Ace proceeded to wander off aimlessly as though absolutely nothing had just happened. "Hahaha~, I'll see you back at the mansion, guys!"

"No, Ace. You don't _live_ at the mansion. Besides, you'll get so lost you'll end up…" I lost my train of thought. Actually, it's more like a boat on train tracks of thought. Like, it just keeps wobbling and falls off all the time, and it is a serious effort to get it back up there. (A wise Cat once told me that…). "Um… Space. Yes, space is where you will end up."

"Huh? 'Space' and 'Ace' rhyme! Isn't that funny?"

"…Hilarious," Blood muttered, looking like he really wanted to leave. "Now then, shall we go home, Toki?"

"…Nope."

"Why not?"

"I wonder?"

"Are you still upset?"

"No, Blood. I'm cheery as a My Little Pony that just gorged itself on cupcakes and danced with a toothless alligator while firing confetti cannons." And then I attempted to get serious again by applying a lovely angry expression to my face. "Yes, I'm still mad!" The tears were totally out of anger, by the way. I definitely wasn't crying because I missed him or anything sappy like that.

I really hoped he would say something comforting and, more importantly, sorry, but he didn't. He was quiet for barely a minute before turning his back on me and beginning to walk back through he maze.

"Where are you going?" I shouted, running to catch up with him. "Don't you even get why I'm mad?"

"Miss Toki," he started, not even looking at me, "I believe I've told you before that I don't."

I balled my hands up into fists for a minute, but when he stopped walking I found myself tackling him in an awesome back-hug. "You stupid… I hate you…"

He pulled my hands into his, turning to face me and pressing my face into his chest. I felt his hair brush my cheek and squeezed his fingers tightly. "Toki, I love you." His soft whisper into my ear was about the most welcome thing of all at the time. "I'm sorry."

"Go… roll in a ditch," I sobbed. "But, don't like… get hurt or something. Just get your stupid fancy white pants all dirty…"

"I'll save that for another day, alright? For now, we should hurry back so that you can get cleaned up and relax."

"Fine. Apology accepted…" I wiped my face off on my arm (I figured it would be pushing it to use his sleeve, though I was greatly tempted to) and stared at him expectantly.

"What is it now?"

"Carry me?" He sighed with exasperation and/or amazement at how I somehow managed to act like a toddler and still be so awesome, and then lifted me up. "Thanks~." I put forth true Toki effort and pulled myself up just enough that I could kiss his cheek before relaxing again. Soon enough I dozed off, waking up on Blood's couch when the cycle had changed to night.

"You're awake," he noted (I feel the need to once again ponder what other basic facts he has to process to function in life). I noticed that my head was resting in his lap as I stretched my arms back over my head, smiling up at him.

"How long did I sleep?" I asked when I realized I was still painfully tired.

"Only a few minutes."

"Oh. Well then, I'm going to go to bed now." Not that I wouldn't have even if I'd already slept for a long time. "Care to join me?"

Oh, Toki. You spout such uncharacteristic things when you're tired. "Well, what's this, Miss Toki?" The Hatter raised an eyebrow inquisitively, resting his head in his hand as he examined my face with a teasing expression. "I thought I wasn't allowed to do that? You even made me promise, if I do recall."

"…Fine, if you don't want to-"

"You really are something, aren't you?" Oh, Blood. You spout such stupid things when I'm tired.

"Yep." I got up, starting toward the door.

"Where are you going?" he questioned, walking over behind me.

"I told you; I'm going to bed." And, as I probably would have expected had I not felt like dropping to the floor and sleeping right there, he scooped me off my feet again (heheh… scooped. It's a funny word.), went to the bedside, pulled back the covers, and set me down.

"Would you like some help changing out of those clothes?" he offered, his pervy face making me tempted to hit him. Surprisingly, I didn't. I narrowed my eyes a bit, sliding my own overshirt off without the need for his assistance, and lay down. "Good night." Much to my irritation, he pushed me over to the other side of the bed and stared at me for a minute after changing into a pinkish fancy-for-sleeping-in shirt.

"Good night, Miss Toki."

"Meh." His arms found their way around me and I was pulled into a tight embrace. It felt really nice—he was warm, and the way he held me was comfortable enough. "I love you, Blood," I said quietly, closing my eyes. For once I didn't actually worry about him doing something totally ungentlemanly while I was sleeping; maybe it was because he'd gone so far out of his way for me several times in the past few… 'days'.

Nah, I'll blame it on my state of consciousness.

"I love you too, Miss Toki."

And so, for the first time, I consensually slept with the… that sentence came out wrong. Shut up. Not-so-euphemisms aside, I was glad that things were finally back to normal with us.

Well, _almost_ normal. Or at least, that's what I learned when I woke up.

AN/ Sorry guys; Haru had a bad case of "Yeah, I'll just put this off until tomorrow" Syndrome (better known as Procrastination), and this came out a bit differently. I tried to make up for it with more content since I was bribed by my sister. I wanted to wrap up the fighting for now, hopefully more will come soon! Also, I'd like to reannounce Toki's series, since I've updated quite a bit. I have this one (the base story), Out of the Rabbit Hole (the sequel; Black Butler), Welcome to Wonderful Waffle Island (a spinoff; Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility), and coming soon (maybe tomorrow), Welcome to Equestria (spinoff; My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic). Also in my plans are: A LOVELESS prequel, a Vampire Knight prequel, a D. Gray-Man sequel (pre-OotRH), and a Pandora Hearts bridge between Part 1 and 2 of OotRH. Just a thought, this story will soon have a lot more plot—of course, I don't have any plans to end it yet, though I do know what will happen in each of the stories I have planned to conclude them. Also, I watched the HNKNA movie, it was great :3

Chao :3


	39. Chapter 38

Yeah… By "almost normal", I didn't necessarily mean between me and Blood. That was pretty much the same. What was "almost normal" was where I woke up.

"HOLY FREAKING WHAT? You're not Aido!" I screamed when I realized that I had sleepwalked into a tacky redhead. Why my first thought upon waking up walking out of the room was "crap, the guy I just ran into wasn't Aido!" I couldn't tell you, but whatever. I'll just blame it on Joker.

"I'm afraid not," the jester said, scratching his head. It was then I noticed the bird on his shoulder. I couldn't quite put my finger on what kind of bird it was though. "Well, this makes things easier then. I came here to discuss something with you, so why don't we take a seat?"

"I can think of plenty of reasons why, actually," I began, "for example, I don't like you, I don't want to discuss stuff with you, and Blood specifically told me no pets in the house." I don't know why Blood told me that—I mean, it was totally unfair. _He_ got to keep _Elliot_ in the house, and he was a bunny!

Joker ignored me, smiling pleasantly as he grabbed my arm and dragged me forcefully over to the couch. I grudgingly sat down, glaring intensely at him. The mask on his belt was glaring back at me with a creepy frown, I noted, hoping that Blood would wake up soon and realize that someone had broken into his house magically desu. "Fine, what do you want? I thought you only showed up in April."

"Usually I do, but I've made a special exception for you and came a few days early."

"Days?" How long had I _been_ in Wonderland?

"Yes, it's almost April again, after all."

"What? How is it almost April already?" I asked, more in my own disbelief than wanting an explanation.

"You see, it's been nearly 365 days now, meaning that you've been in Wonderland for a little less than a year-"

"How do you convert cycles into days?" I immediately demanded, cutting him off.

"That isn't the point I'm trying to address."

"SCREW YOUR FREAKING POINT I WANNA KNOW NOW~~!" Needless to say, he ignored my request again and continued. Maybe it was like, one day was four cycles or something. But there's no need to go using my fancy mathematics on you.

"I'm going to warn you now, Toki, since you haven't had the medicine yet, and I'll make this quick: leave Wonderland before April begins, or we will force you to wake from this dream," he said cryptically, narrowing his eyes and coming close to my face.

"I'm going to warn you now, Joker, since you haven't had the lecture yet, and I'll make this quick: leave the mansion now before that bird makes a mess, or I will force you to do my chores for the rest of eternity." Naturally, I chose then to immitate a llama. But my mouth was dry, so I didn't actually spit on him unfortunately. Actually, it sounded more like a chain-smoking princess was dying. "Ahem, please excuse me while I go get a quick drink of water," I said in the most proper voice I could... No, I won't say it! Um... the most proper voice I, err... could. Yeah, I'll leave it at that.

Alas, he vanished into thin air, bird and all, before I could even stand up. Then, Mister Mafioso decided to finally wake up. Stupid heavy sleeper.

"Miss Toki, who were you talking to?"

"Myself. Hey, Blood, did you know I've been here for a year now?" I asked randomly, realizing that I had completely vanished from my world without explaniation for a year. I was _so_ beyond grounded. Well, actually, I was 18... so legally, I was an adult. Bugger yeah.

Still, I couldn't shake the feeling that I had to go back home, if only to tell my family I was still alive; they would, no doubt, be worried half to death with the disappearance of their beloved Toki, after all. "Yes. I something bothering you?" He stared at me, puzzled.

"Well... I mean, I can't stay in Wonderland forever, Blood. I'll miss Senior-Skip-Day at school if I do."

He sighed deeply. "Toki, where is this coming from?"

"What, my voice? That's from my vocal chords."

"You know what I mean."

"Oh, the whole 'leaving' thing? I'm just sort of thinking out loud, don't mind me." He still seemed to mind, but I decided it would be best to just change the subject. "Hey, Blood, did you turn the toaster off?" I inquired out of nowhere, hoping that he would be distracted. He was.

"No."

"That's not very safe. Go do it."

"Miss Toki, why-"

"No questions; it's an obvious fire hazard. I'm going to go find Aido since _someone_ here doesn't seem to care if his pretty mansion is burned to the ground."

"Toki, don't bother the servants with something like that," he mumbled in vexation, putting his hand on my shoulder. "I'm afraid Elliot and I have some business to attend to today, so why don't you... err... help Aido."

"Help him do what? I've been banned from cleaning, grocery shopping, battle, organization (which is COMPLETELY different from cleaning), doing that thing where I slide across the floor in my socks, sliding down the stairs on my butt, okay so those aren't really helpful, but you get the point. I'm not allowed to do anything without adult supervision."

He chuckled, probably trying to envision just how I got myself officially banned by the not-rabbit from using my unusual means to reach the bottom of the stairs. It went something like this:

"Hey, Elliot, good... Evening. Or morning. I can't really tell right now."

Sigh. "Good evening, Toki."

"Watcha doing?" I asked, about halfway down the large flight of stairs after about three minutes.

"Trying to go down the stairs. I have to get some papers from my room."

"Cool. You should try this."

Insert-blunt-and-sort-of-hurtful-refusal-here.

And then, I sort of kind of, well, pushed him. So, needless to say I wasn't allowed to do that anymore.

As for the sock-sliding, that involved Blood being knocked over for the thirtieth time since I met him, and I guess he was finally fed up with it. Whatever, Blood; ruin my fun, see if _I_ care! I don't, really. And I still skate on the floor anyway, so HAH! THE JOKE'S ON YOU.

Sorry about that. "Yes... please try to entertain yourself in a less destructive manner today," he directed, walking over to his wardrobe and taking out his signature outfit, staring at me with a raised brow. He also lifted his hat up and placed it on my head.

"Want me to cosplay?" I wondered why he felt it acceptable to GIVE me his head-wear. "Or does Mister Dupre need help getting dressed?"

"I would much rather have your help getting _un_dressed later, Miss Toki." I was too transfixed with his hat to care at that point.

"Yeah, well don't get your hopes up. Do you doubt my ability to punch you in the face right now?"

"If you weren't so low to the ground, I would say no."

"...Did you just call me short...?" I sniffled, puffing out my lip poutingishly in hopes of making him feel bad. "You know what, that just makes it easier to kick you somewhere else, so I suggest you never make another short joke if you don't want to lose your reproductive rights."

He winced and I smiled with satisfaction, skipping out of the room with hat in tow to go get dressed quickly before dashing off to find my favorite faceless friend. Yay, alliteration!

It wasn't difficult to locate him (somehow, he still stood out among the many servants that lacked a pair of eyes). Maybe it's because he looked perpetually uncomfortable; rather, he tensed up when I walked into the same room as him.

"Miss Toki! I wasn't... expecting to see you here. I'm afraid I don't have time to play with you right now." I sensed that he was lying using my awesomeness.

"Nonsense, I just need some help finding some feathers."

"Some whats?"

"You know, birdy clothes." I offered no more explanation, dragging him by his arm outside. Fortunately he didn't put up much of a battle. He just sort of complained a LOT- mostly about how he actually had a job to be doing, and if he didn't he would be shot, and how he could walk without my help, and to stop pushing him over every fallen tree. "Now, scour! I need some feathers for this wonderful work of hat!"

"Is that the boss's hat? How did you get that?" You'd think he'd have learned not to ask questions. However, I decided to grace his foolishness with an answer as I was quite content with the amount of turkey feathers I'd already collected. He handed me a few more.

"Mud-wrestling of course." He said nothing. "And of course, after that there was the triathlon and tug-of-war tournament. Then we ate some cereal, well, I ate more than he did- actually he just stole a piece out of my bowl to irritate me- and poof, his hat was magically in my possession." I didn't say I was going to give him a REALISTIC answer. "By the way, did you know hat rhymes with mat? I read that in a book once!"

"Are you sure that's what happened?" he asked, raising a not-so-eye brow. "And why are you collecting these to put on it, anyway? It already has plenty of feathers."

"I want to see if he noticed. And yes, I'm as sure that that's what happened as I am that Neil Caffrey was the first man on the moon." Pfft. Everyone knows it was Alexander Louis Armstrong. Duh.

After I fixed the various feathers onto the hat we returned to the manor for a session of Aido-lecturing-Toki-about-'no-you-don't-butter-on-the-bread-before-it-goes-in-the-toaster-and-no-we-do-not-ride-serving-trays-down-the-stairs-like-a-sled', before I moved on to start rummaging around the kitchen, overtaken by a wonderful idea.

"Toki, what are you doing now?" he grumbled, picking up the trail of mess I left in my wake like the good little manservant he is.

"Where are the cookbooks in this house? I want to bake a cake."

I was horribly insulted by the silence he replied with at first. "You want to do what? I'm afraid I misheard."

"Bake a cake."

"... You... you want to... bake?"

"Yes Aido. Problem?"

"Y-yes! I can't trust you to go to the grocery store with me without hurting yourself- or others for that matter- and you want me to... you'll set the house on fire!"

I didn't know faceless Chicanos could make that sort of expression, but by the gods. It. Was. _Hilarious._

After a lot of convincing, arguing, a bit of threatening, and a lot of shouting, I realized there was a much easier option: I approached another servant who appeared to not know me, and in my sweeetest little cutesy-Toki voice (man, it was hard to get that quiet. But the adorableness was a given) I requested the location of a cookbook. While Aido, of course, was locked in the kitchen.

And, despite the kitchen door's protests, I got one. It took a while for me to locate all the ingredients (mostly because Aido was still frantically trying to convince me to let him do the baking) and, embarrassingly enough, the oven, but I did it all whilst singing about baking time sorbet so it was still fun. The faceless servant, unfortunately, had evidently never heard of this song and enjoyed it much less. If only I was baking cupcakes.

After much preparation and mixing, I shocked my companion by displaying to him not only a normal-looking batter but also a decently clean kitchen. It probably didn't help his nerves before that that I'd pretended to be incompetent, but I had to have SOME fun.

I did have his help putting it in the oven though. But that's just because it was really heavy I wanted him to feel important. After approximately fourty minutes of baking, twenty minutes of fighting to get icing on the cake, and a few minutes of waiting I dashed to the foyer. And as soon as Blood had returned and removed his bloody gloves and coat, I smiled brightly at him and announced, "Blood I baked you a cake!" proudly.

His face. Was. Priceless.

AN/ The plot has finally found Miss Toki, it would seem, and there shall be more development in the upcoming chapters. Sorry for the wait on this one, it's a bit longer than I was expecting, and my internet was out for a while when I wanted to upload it ^^'. Soon I will also be starting another story narrated by Aido that features Toki :3 Also, one reference I made in this chapter was sort of obscure. 'Baking time sorbet' comes from the song Pinkie's Brew, from a My Little Pony fandub series "Friendship is Witchcraft". The cupcakes thing in that paragraph is also a reference to a MLP song, or on a more morbid thought process, Cupcakes by Futret :P Thanks for reading!


	40. Chapter 39

"You... did what?" Blood asked, thoroughly convinced that he had heard wrong. It was like NO ONE trusted me with a hot oven!

"You heard right."

"And how many people were injured by the aftermath?"

"Blood, you know I hate math. Besides, I will have you know that not one person, cat, or rabbit was injured during the making of this cake. Well, Aido tripped on some stuff earlier, but the cake had nothing to do with that!"

With that I dragged him to the kitchen excitedly, getting a brilliant idea halfway there. "Oh, and... you, uh... Have to promise me you won't be mad," I said guiltily.

"I knew you broke something."

"I-I didn't... break anything."

And I don't count that whisk; it was totally bent already. It's not like I TOTALLY broke it. It was just a _little _snapped in half. In any case, Blood responded with a deep sigh, which sounded like a, "Yes, yes, Toki. I'm _sure _nothing was broken in my absesnce," or something like that.

I made sure to go extra-slowly the ret of the walk, and before I opened the door I looked up at him nervously. "Okay, just close your eyes, and take a deep breath." I waited until he reluctantly did, and he appeared to be holding his breath. After taking my own dramatically long gasp of air I led him inside, grinning evilly. "A-alright."

Naturally, since he was expecting the worst, Blood's face was even funnier than when I'd told him I baked a cake. I laughed really hard at this, hugging his arm. "Surprised?" I teased, offering him a smug smile.

"The kitchen... And there's not even a mess. I'm proud of you, Miss Toki." After complimenting the cake, he decided it best to try a piece before giving me too big a head. Of course, I told him we couldn't have cake until we ate an actual meal first (mostly just to antagonize him. I mean, like _I_ would ever care about what I ate before cake) and proceeded to insist that we had a romantic dinner desu desu.

Blood kept eyeing me suspiciously, as though he thought my creation was going to like, explode or something. "Blood, I swear it's just a regular loaf of flour, sugar, eggs, etc. It won't hurt you."

"I apologize. My mind is... elsewhere tonight." I, being one to stick my nose in everything, was instantly curious.

"Hmm? Oh really?"

"Yes, it's nothing you should concern yourself with, though." He forced a smile through the candlelight, reaching across the table and stroking my face gently.

"But I like concerning myself with things."

A bit more harshly, he repeated himself. "Toki, please don't worry about it." I took the hint.

"Right. So, how about some dessert then?" And so, we ate my masterpiece in awkward silence. Well, mostly silence, except for me rambling on and on about how Aido was shaped funny if you squinted at him while laying on your side and looking through a bowl of water.

"This is very good," he said, trying to get me onto a less annoying topic.

"Thank you, Blood~."

"I never knew you could bake."

"... I haven't been allowed in the kitchen since that one time." He blinked. "You know, that... thing."

"Ah, yes. Well, you can't be bitter about that. It _was_ your fault."

"It was partially Dee's."

"I'm sure he had everything to do with it, but if you recall the twins were playing hookey that day."

As for what 'that thing' was, I'll never tell. EVER. Like, really, no matter how many times you spam my email or anything.

Well, I guess you don't really know my email, so that's not a problem... hahaha.

After I cleaned up (that's right, _I _cleaned up. I, the Great and Powerful Trixi-Toki, was allowed to cleanse the residue from actual ceramics. I spilled a bit of soap on the floor and got to play in it. Well, not really, but I wish I did. Blood still looked sort of moody though) we went back to the mafia boss's room, and I took a seat on one of the titian settees.

"I'm sorry, Toki. I believe I'm going to retire for the night now." He threw his coat and vest on top of his armoire, and I could tell he was really upset. So, despite the fact that he told me not to concern myself with his problem, I decided to crawl under the covers beside him after a few minutes. "Hm? Sleeping here again?" he asked, smiling slightly. I kissed him in response, pressing myself against him.

''You don't mind, do you?" Pfft, of course he didn't.

"Of course not." What'd I tell you?

He caressed me softly, kissing my neck, my cheek, and then my lips almost absentmindedly. "Blood, please tell me what's wrong," I pleaded, putting a hand on his chest. He didn't seem impressed, narrowing his aqua eyes. "And don't tell me it's not my business, because I love you, and if you're upset I want to know why."

"Toki, you know I love you too, and that's exactly why I don't want to talk about it."

"I don't understand."

"Just leave it at that." I felt his hand on my shoulder, and a minute later he tugged at my sleeve with a lascivious smile. I loudly cleared my throat, sighing deeply. "Miss Toki, we've been together for nearly a year now. I don't see what the problem is."

My face turned bright red and I stared at his chest to avoid eye contact. "Yeah, but..." Well, actually I couldn't really think of something to say. So, I went with the next best thing. "Cornucopia. With, uh... pumpernickel."

Randomness- the answer to every situation. Not really, all I succeeded in doing was getting him to chuckle a bit. But, it was then I decided that I wasn't going to argue anymore. The mafioso pressed his lips against mine and I gave in, kissing him back and unbuttoning the top button of his shirt. "Oh, what's this?" he asked teasingly.

"A buttonhole. Duh."

The Hatter pulled himself over me, running a hand through my hair.

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, a slight smirk playing on my lips.

AN/ Woo, two chapters up WITHOUT a month in between! This one took an uh... interesting turn from what I'd planned XD Next chapter will be extra-special! :3

Thanks for reading, and reviews are always encouraged- Toki likes reading them, so she shuts up for a while when I get them. So, if you guys care for my ears' wellbeing at all, PLEASE. PLEASE GIVE HER THAT. /I mean, what? XD


	41. Chapter 40

I enjoyed every moment as I lay lazily with my head resting on my pillow. I even dared to wish that I could spend the entire day like that, with Toki's soft black hair gently brushing my face, however I knew that there was something far too important to deal with. I kissed her forehead before reluctantly sitting up, climbing out of the bed and retrieving the articles of my clothing that had been hastily discarded on the floor in the heat of the moment last night. I carefully deposited them on one of the chairs by my bookshelf before dressing in my typical attire.

A quick glance at my hat told me something was quite off- in fact, it appeared that my inamorata had gone through the trouble of gathering several turkey feathers and sliding them under the ribbon. A mischevious grin crossed my lips as I thought of a simple way to get revenge, and I approached the sleeping Outsider with a particularly soft down feather, sliding it across her upper lip. She wrinkled her nose, then sneezed and opened her eyes slightly to leer at me. "Blood, you're so immature," Toki mumbled, shifting a bit.

"_I'm_ the immature one, now?" I offered her the rest of the plumage she had collected. "I believe you lost these."

"I didn't lose them. You just found where I was keeping them," she retorted, sticking out her tongue. I shook my head at her childishness- of course she was indeed very amusing, so I was more than happy to put up with it.

Even if we hadn't become so close, I still would've put up with it. '_For Alice, if no one else,' _I reminded myself as I placed my top hat on my head and prepared to take my leave.

"Where are you going, Blood?"

"We didn't quite get to finish yesterday, Miss Toki. I trust you will behave yourself again today?"

"Yes, mother."

"There's no need for sarcasm. I simply don't want my entire mansion to be destroyed."

"Saying 'my entire mansion' makes you sound pretentious."

"Perhaps I am feeling pretentious tonight." With that I took my leave, wondering if she believed my story. Knowing Miss Toki Freaking Hana, I was prepared for her to follow me, though I didn't go far enough to give her time to come up with that idea. Taking a moment to make sure no servants were in the hall, I slipped into one of the numerous rooms.

The faint yet distinct scent of the wine cellar filled my nose as I took in a deep breath, leaned against the door, and closed my eyes.

I opened them slowly, taking in my kaleidoscopic surroundings. It had been quite some time since I had last visited the de facto director of Wonderland, and I hoped that he wouldn't take as long as he usually did to arrive. He did, much to my dissatisfaction, but the incubus sensed my irritation and decided to get straight to business.

"So, you're here to discuss _her_, correct?" Nighmare inquired, already confident that he knew the answer.

"Yes. I'll make this simple: give me the medicine, or I will fight you."

"Hey~, there's no need to threaten violence. You know I can't just give it to you now; you brought her here illegally, after all."

"You opened the gateway, therefore she must have been approved," I reminded him calmly, already lifting my cane.

He crossed his arms, vanishing briefly before levitating back into view on my left. "If I recall correctly, you threatened me just like this saying if I didn't bring you an outsider you would kill me and smash my clock."

"I know you care for her as well, Nightmare," I stated, narrowing my eyes and transforming the staff into my gun with a sly grin. "And it seems our friend Joker has been trying to manipulate her into leaving, so she has to drink the medicine."

"I've never seen you so clingy before, Hatter. Nevertheless, you know I can't."

"Come now; when have I ever been one to worry about the rules of Wonderland?" I fired at him twice, one bullet nearly striking his shoulder. However, even I knew I barely stood a chance against a demon with his power, and I was sure not to take my bluff too far. "I won't beg you for this. In fact, if you won't give me the medicine I suppose I'll just have to find another way to keep her here; perhaps I'll tear out her heart and replace it with a clock. Or I'll just kill her and allow her to become another Joker?"

He bit his lip with frustration, seeming to take me seriously even though he could read my mind. "You wouldn't dare."

"Ah, but we both know I would." I wouldn't fail at protecting her if she died by my own hands. "So, it's up to you what happens."

"Tch. Fine, I'll give it to you."

"Thank you, I greatly appreciate it." I blinked and in my hand appeared a small glass vial, filled with a blueish liquid. Satisfied, tipped my hat to the incubus before he disappeared, waking up moments later. "That went better than I had expected." I helped myself to a celebratory wine-tasting session, allowing several hours to pass in my makeshift hiding place until I felt it had been long enough.

I spilled a bit of dark-crimson wine on my glove, allowing it to soak in before adding a bit more to deepen the color until it was similar enough to blood that Toki would be fooled. With a clap of my hands a doorway revealed itself on the opposite side of the room and I stepped outside into the gardens. I quickly made my way to the front gate, scowling at the lack of gatekeepers (I made sure to punish them accordingly the next time I saw them) as I walked inside. As I expected, Toki was chasing the servant she had named Aido around the foyer, appearing to be in the midst of some useless argument.

"Miss Toki, what are you doing?" I sighed, suppressing a laugh.

"Blood~! I was just assualting Mister-I'm-Too-Good-To-Have-Eyes here because he's a jerk and wouldn't let me blow bubbles with the dish soap."

"Ah, good evening, Sir!" the frantic servant greeted hastily, dipping his head and taking time to catch his breath while the outsider was distracted. I noticed that she had decorated his face with marker again, curious as to how she managed to do that while she was so short; all he had to do was look up and the worst she could do was scribble a crude beard on his chin.

I removed my gloves and handed them him, pointed out that he may want to wash his face later, and approached Toki. "So, did you get your business all finished today?"

"Yes, I believe I have. I also picked up a special gift for you." Her eyes lit up at the mention of a gift.

"Ooh, I love presents~! What is it? Does it involve chocolate? Or a Death Scythe?"

I wasn't sure what a Death Scythe was, but I knew I wouldn't trust her with one. "No, I'm afraid not. They were... fresh out of those. But I'm sure you will enjoy it." I reached into my pocket and held out the bottle to her, hoping that she wouldn't somehow manage to break the thick glass upon contact with the vial- destruction was her strong point, after all.

Fortunately she didn't, and she inquisitively sniffed the medicine. "Is it... grape soda?"

"Yes?"

"Ick, I hate grape soda."

_'Ugh... ingrateful little twit...'_ I thought to myself, fighting off a disgusted expression similar to the one she was making. "I was joking; it's nothing you've ever tried before, I promise."

"I don't know, Blood; smells like grape juice mixed with carbonated water and high fructose corn syrup to me."

"I suppose if you don't want it I'll simply have to give it to Aido."

"I'd love to try it~!" She carefully pulled off the lid and I smiled, pleased with her reaction. "Ooh, that is good! What was it, anyway?"

"... I can't remember what it's called. I apologize."

"So, where'd you go, anyway?"

"The Amusement Park."

"Hm? The twins said they didn't see you there yesterday, though."

"Huh? Oh, is that so? Perhaps they just didn't run into us." Vexatious gatekeepers. "The park is quite large, after all. Though I can only wonder what _they_ were doing there."

"Yeah, I guess they were supposed to be working... But, um... Blood, can I talk to you about something?" she asked in her voice that told me that she was actually trying to be serious. I rarely heard that tone from her.

"Of course."

"I've just... been thinking more about how long I've been here and... what do you think? If I go home, could I come back? Or would I be stuck there?"

I once again fought the overwhelming urge to grin. "You won't have to worry about that for a while now," I told her, gently collecting the bottle from her.

"Huh? Why not?"

It took a moment to come up with a suitable lie. "You are aware of the difference in the passing of time in our world, correct?" She nodded.

"Duh. In Pennsylvania, the sun doesn't orbit the planet backwards."

"And is the world flat where you're from?"

"Ha ha, very funny Blood. Obviously the world is a circle."

"Sphere," I corrected before continuing. "I believe time passes much more quickly here, so you could only have been gone for a few hours at most by my calculations." I had never been so thankful that the Outsider hated mathematics. She seemed convinced, at least, mostly.

"Cool. But, you know, Joker's still trying to get rid of me."

"I am aware, but I can handle that easily," I boasted, patting her on the shoulder. "Now then, please excuse me for a moment."

"Where are you going now?"

"I just have to use the restroom." I removed my hat and placed in her hands, taking my leave. I lifted the glass vial once more from my pocket, as well as a new pair of gloves, and with as much force as I could muster I smashed the bottle in my hand, ignoring the small cuts that now littered my palm.

"Yes, Toki. You won't have to worry about it at all now."

AN/ *Sigh* I don't see why I had to do that. Honestly, now I've gone and missed tea-time. And I do hope Toki isn't angry with me for using the word 'muster' in my narration... Haru, you best never make me do this again, or else Nightmare might not be the only one I'm targeting.

Well, thank you for wasting your time as well- what do you mean I can't say that? Haru, just do this yourself if- oh, nevermind. Yes, yes, thank you for reading and reviewing and all that. And evidently Haru wants me to make a special shout-out to "I am a stegosaurus asdf movie", "Demeter13909", and "Sparkly Butlerz" for reviewing the latest chapters, as well as all of her followers/reviewers thus far.


	42. Chapter 41

Blood and I spent a lot of time together in the days after he finished his special 'work'. I couldn't get him to spill exactly what happened, but having at least an idea of how long I'd actually been in Wonderland was very comforting for me.

For the first time in quite a while, I also received a visit from Nightmare in my dream. It was sort of a pleasant surprise, although really all he said was that when I woke up the world would have moved again. And, much to my excitement, he didn't spontaneously decide to show up and lie to me to get my hopes up. I opened my eyes, kissing Blood and snuggling up close to him. "Blood~, wake up~!" I Toki whispered to him, not managing to wake Mr.-I-could-sleep-through-a-giant-sea-turtle-crushing-the-entire-mansion on the first try, so I gave up and got up without him.

I got dressed in the warmest outfit I had (which still wasn't very warm, but I didn't have anything better), wrote a quick note to make sure my boyfriend didn't think I vanished mysteriously, and ran off to go do Toki things. The woods around the manor looked very pretty in the colorfulness of fall, though I was even more excited when the air got colder and I found the ground littered with a thick layer of snow. It'd been so long since I'd spent time with anyone but Blood or Ace, I was starting to feel lonely. Well, not counting Aido, but he doesn't have eyes so does he really count as an anyone?

Around the time when I was starting to feel like my arms were going to fall off from the cold, I encountered a pink mass of fluff curled up in the snow. "Boris?" I asked, poking him. The cat looked up at me, seeming to be horribly annoyed, and his ears twitched.

"Oh, it's Miss Outsider, huh? Lose the Hatter again?" He sat up and I wondered how the heck he hadn't frozen to death with the clothes he was wearing. Especially since I was freezing and I had approximately a lot more of my skin covered than he did.

"For your information, Fluffy, I came to see a lizard-ninja. So hah. So, what're you doing here, anyway? It's kind of... cold."

"Yeah, I guess. I must have ended up here when we moved."

He tossed his magically warm bundle of fur over my shoulders, grinning when I retaliated by assaulting his ears with love. Because I'm a cat person.

We chatted about random crap on the way up the hill, well, not really 'crap' crap, but you knew what I meant from the start, huh? Bugger you, I'll ramble about whatever crap I want to, so don't make that face. Since Boris was a feline he had the attention span of a toothpick, and as a result our conversation went nowhere, but who cares, right?

As soon as we actually got in the tower I had an immediate spazz attack. "GRAYYYY I MISSED YOU SO FREAKING MUCH!" I shouted across the country, all of the force I used in my epic tackle-hug combined with my element of surprise enough to allow me to successfully push Mister Assassino to the ground.

"M-Miss Toki?" he seemed a touch shocked, making an awesome face for me to remember always. "I wasn't expecting you to come, are you here to see Master Nightmare?"

"Sort of, mostly you though. I hope you don't mind, Boris tagged along too." Actually, Boris had disappeared, but I guess he did technically tag along before that so it's not like I was lying.

"Well, I do suppose I could take a quick break." He waited for me to finally remember that I was actually still sitting on him (pfft, we remember how long it took me last time) and we stood up, walking together to a sitting room complete with a kotatsu, much to my delight. I could finally have a true Tamaki Suoh moment!

Several Ouran High School Host Club inside jokes later, Gray went to fetch us some hot chocolate and joined me at the warm table. "So, how have you been enjoying your time in Wonderland?"

"It's been pretty... interesting, to say the least. I'm really glad I got to meet all of you, and I always wanted to date someone with a cool hat." I hated that question, and yet everyone seemed to ask it.

"I'm happy to hear that." He smiled, albeit a touch awkwardly, and took a sip of his drink.

"So, did Nightmare behave himself while we were in the country of Hearts?"

He chuckled, nodding. "Yes, though both of us will have to work even harder now that the country has moved again. Things always get quite hectic."

A bit more casual banter followed that before Nightmare himself graced us with his presence, as well as his... cats.

A lot of them.

Like, seriously, there had to be eight cats following him, not to mention the three that had already been in the room.

But felines aside he made a brilliant entrance, taking a seat beside me. "Toki, I'm so glad you're here! Now you can help me!"

"Dear Gackt no. Whatever it is you want me to be an accomplice in, find someone else."

"But you don't even know what I need your help in."

"Yeah, based on the fact that Gray just sighed I have a feeling you're just being an idiot."

He seemed insulted (for some reason) so I laughed in his face. "Miss Toki, Master Nightmare is referring to the doctor's appointment he has today. I believe he is hoping for you to help him avoid going, but I would appreciate it if you could be on my side."

"Tch! Gray! No, Toki, you have to help me because I'M in charge here! Surely you recognize that, right?"

That was a tough choice- help Gray and be a good person, or help Nightmare and be obnoxious. I decided to try out a new walk of life though, and later on (after Nightmare had thoroughly informed us of all the reasons he shouldn't have to go see a doctor) I was faced with the difficult task of trying to drag an incubus along with the help of a lizard.

Bugger yeah, we were going to the doctor.

AN/ Okay, so I know this chapter sucks ;; And it's short ;; Please don't hate me, I put it down for a long time and lost the feel of this chapter... so the next one should be better.

On another note, make sure to check out my HNKNA popularity poll on my profile page, the results will have a special effect on something involving Miss Toki *wink wink*

Also, I have a new one-shot out narrated by Gray called _Mercenary_, so you should all totally check it out ;3


	43. Chapter 42

So, dragging the reluctant incubus all the way to the town was harder than I was expecting, even with a super-strong lizard man helping out. Mostly because Gray's resolve wavered with a bit of bribery ("Hey, Gray! I'll let you get another cat, so why don't we just go back?"). I managed to convince him to stay on my side though, using my feminine charm and a lot of shouting.

Mostly the shouting. I don't really have feminine charm.

I had never been so buggering happy to see a bunch of buildings I wasn't allowed to go into and a few that I'd never been in before in my life, so sick of fighting with Nightmare that I though _I_ might need to go the doctor. Hehe, see what I did there? Did you see it? I'm so clever.

"Finalyyyyyyyyyyy." I made sure to emphasize the ending of my word for dramatic effect. "Look Nightmare, we're at the doctor's office! Now you can get your shots!" Just to bug him.

"No, Gray I don't want to! Do you have any respect for me at all? Why won't either of you listen to me? Don't ignore me!" He was starting to get obnoxious, so I stomped on his foot. "Oww, Toki!"

"Well! If you weren't so annoying all the time maybe I wouldn't have to hurt you."

He crossed his arms and I swear he was actually starting to tear up a little bit. It was the funniest thing ever. We walked in, the faceless receptionist immediately looking up at us. "Oh, Mister Ringmarc! We haven't seen you in a while, how has he been feeling?"

Gray sighed, obviously embarrassed by his master. "He refuses to take his medicine. I've been mixing it in with his food (Nightmare's face here was perfect) but I'm not sure he's getting enough."

"You've been doing WHAT to my food? I thought it tasted worse than usual!"

"Fortunately Miss Toki has kindly assisted me in escorting him here," Gray finished, much to my amusement. _My_ actions were described with the adverb _kindly_. Isn't _that_ laughable?

"Bugger yeah, I did. I just want to see him get his shots."

The receptionist nodded, looking a bit disturbed by my enthusiasm. "Alright then. The doctor will be right with you." She proceeded to provide Gray with information greatly outweighed by my not caring and we carried on to an examination room. I sat in front of the door to keep Nightmare from leaving while he had his conniption.

Of course, Mister Ringmarc had to help too. Because having a petite little Toki in front of something isn't really all that meaningful. (Wait, did I just say I wasn't very meaningful? What the bugger? I blame you guys, I really do. This is all your fault. Way to freaking go.)

When, "Please, Gray! I'll do my work, I promise! I won't even try and take a break all the time!" didn't work, Waruiyume-san decided to take a different approach. "I'm your boss, you know! So you have to listen to me!"

"Sir, as your loyal servant it is my job to sacrifice myself for your health and well-being, no matter what the consequences may be. If you wish to fire me for this, that's your decision to make."

So cool and dedicated. I wish Blood was more like that. That reminds me of a conversation I had like that with him once:

"Hey Blood, can I have twenty bucks?"

"What do you need now, Miss Toki?"

"Some… uh, stuff." He raised his eyebrow. "Candy."

"_That_ much candy?"

The Hatter seemed relatively alarmed at that. I don't blame him. "…Yeah. 'Cuz it'll last me a long time?"

"Absolutely not. Perhaps if you took care of your duties as a guard you would have more money."

"BUT BLOOD I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR WORKING I'M ALWAYS WITH YOU. I mean, I love you Blood and you should totally give me ten bucks at least just to prove that you love me too."

"…Not happening."

"…Five?"

"I'll tell you what, if you can go a day without injuring someone, breaking something, getting in the way, stealing my hat, or doing anything else you always get in trouble for, perhaps I will think about giving you money for candy."

"But Bloooooddddddd, as my loyal boyfriend it is your job to sacrifice yourself for my health and well-being, no matter WHAT the consequences may be! If I wish to buy candy, that's your problem to deal with!"

Note: That ISN'T how relationships should work. Well, I think that'd be a pretty good deal… But yeah, I don't think most relationships with Jupitarian/Mexicano/Wonderlandian mob bosses really 'work'. Maybe Mexican ones. I don't know, I've never dated a Mexican mob boss before.

That awesome anecdote brings me to my next point—you should always sleep with a dehumidifier in your room.

All that random crap aside, Nightmare couldn't argue with Gray's logic using mere words. So, he started whining incoherently until finally the faceless doctor (who looked vaguely familiar… I wonder if he was the guy who Elliot called in. Maybe his cousin or next-door neighbor) entered the room with us. Gray pulled me out of his way and I sat in an actual chair, tempted to start sniffing the medical equipment.

"Master Nightmare, can we trust you to behave yourself?" Mommy asked, staring expectantly at the widdle baby as he pouted.

"No."

"Very well then, we won't even get you a souvenir while we wait." I began laughing, following Gray closely out the door so we could close it quickly.

"How do you put up with him?" I asked once we were out of the building and I was sure Nightmare couldn't go prying around in my mind.

"I suppose it's because I respect him so much. He was truly amazing when I first met him, and he still has his moments."

"You're funny, Gray. So, what're we gonna do whilst we wait?"

"Would you like to walk around town for a bit? Or we could get something to eat?"

Ooh, bonding time with my lizard buddy. Yay!

/AN/ Well, I wanted to write something to make up for the craptastic chapter I threw up last time, so I tried to make this longer than usual. Toki had more inner monologue than she has lately, so hopefully you all enjoy that :3 This one was fun to write, though a bit redundant. Fortunately I do have a decent idea of where this is going from here. A bit of a heads-up, it does involve the Amusement Park, so if you're a fan of them then I'm finally going to be hitting up that area of Wonderland.

*Waruiyume means "bad" (warui) "dream" (yume) in Japanese. They're pretty common words in anime songs (xD) so Toki's likely to know them.


	44. Chapter 43

"Miss Toki, I thought we had something special?" I nearly spat out my hot chocolate (yay, no tea!) on Gray when I heard Mister Mafioso's voice. "Is there something you'd like to talk about with me?"

Leave it to him to show up and make things awkward. "Yes Blood, I'm breaking up with you so I can date Nightmare's babysitter," I deadpanned, thanking every Japanese pop-star I could think of that he got my sarcasm. Gray snickered at this, making me aware that he could in fact 'snicker'. I mean, he had such a deep, sexy voice I was shocked, but whatever.

Well, I don't really think he was 'snickering' per say, anyway… maybe chortling. Nah, it was more of a chuckle.

"So, will I have to start making dinner for three now?" the assassin asked teasingly, knowing full well I hated his 'healthy cooking'. Yeah it was healthy. If you consider being in good health wishing you could be dead so you didn't have to feel your stomach flipping around like a Russian gymnast.

"Pfft, no. Unless you're pregnant or something. Or Nightmare is. In either case, I think there's just too much lying going on in our relationship." Blood had since taken a seat beside me and wrapped his arm around my waist as though he was trying to remind me we were dating. You'd think if he wanted to do that he would've dropped the "Miss" honorific, huh?

He was totally jealous. It was awesome.

"I trust she's been behaving herself today, Mister Ringmarc?" the Boss asked, his tone of voice reminding me of my dad. Which brought me to another mental point—if Gray was my mom and Blood was my father, what did that make Nightmare? Was he my step-brother? And would my relationship be incestuous, or does it not matter because I was dating him _before_ I gave him that inner nickname?

Important questions, people. What do you think?

"Yes, she is quite the well-mannered young lady." Gray, that was a lie and you know it.

"Now if only she acted that way _all of the time_." Yeah Blood, I got that hint. I just choose to ignore it.

"Not gonna happen," I said flatly, taking his hat and another sip of my cocoa. Gray drank a bit of his coffee and we continued to chatter uselessly amongst ourselves (hanging out with my two favorite guys at the same time actually didn't go as disastrously as I had thought it would; apparently Blood and Gray had some sort of mutual respect for each other or something), mostly about me, for a while before the lizard assassino decided he should go back to the clinic.

"So, what were you doing here anyway, Blood?" I asked, wondering what he could possibly have been doing there anyway. Blood Dupre does NOT belong in a dainty café setting under most circumstances.

"Am I not allowed to walk around town now and then?"

Blood, didn't you just see my inner monologue? "I guess. Just asking." I took his response as 'Oh, I was out watching for you in case you were with someone else because I get jealous easily,' more so for my own entertainment than anything else. "So, while we're out do you want to go shopping?" I asked excitedly, my new random whim already changing the subject.

"Hm? What for?"

"You know, since approximately one fifth of the country is winter, another one is … summery," I started, having no clue where I was going. "And… Basketball. Donkeys. Yeah, summery basketball donkeys."

Blood, does a girl REALLY need a reason to go shopping on her boyfriend's dime?

He took a deep breath, preparing to say something else stupid, when I finally decided what I was going for. Well, actually I didn't. I lost my train of thought so badly I'm pretty sure it went straight off a cliff. "Miss Toki…" With a sigh, he went along with it.

It's because I'm so freaking persuasive and adorable, people just listen to me sometimes. I know, it's just one more awesome thing about me.

"What about this one, Toki?" Blood asked, holding up a bikini that made me want to slap him. Oh, yeah, I decided since approximately one fifth of the country was also summer I would get a swimsuit so I could enjoy summertime properly. And I for some reason found it socially acceptable to bring Mr. Dupre with me.

"Blood, seriously. We're in public." He gave me the look that said, 'I'm about to make a really dumb comment so you should cut me off.' "Don't even say it."

He picked up an equally irritating one and offered it to me, smiling smugly as though he WASN'T about to get hit. "…Just go away." Thirty seconds later, he was looking at lingerie. "Blood, look, if there's something you want to talk about I'm here for you. But I just want you to know that I don't date transgenders," I called over to him, hoping that questioning his sexuality in front of the two or three women who kept looking at me funny would get him to stop.

Opposite effects occurred. "Miss Toki, there's no need to be embarrassed. _I_ don't care who knows you'll be wearing this tonight."

"I don't care either, because I won't be wearing it!"

"Oh? That's fine, too," he said, narrowing his eyes and grinning.

"YOU KNOW WHAT I MEANT."

"Ah, yes. And I'm already quite excited."

"SERIOUSLY."

He laughed as though my face's tomatoey-color was the most hilarious thing since bubbles. "I see you share my enthusiasm."

"Really, do you WANT me to slap you across the face? Are you turning into some kind of weird masochist or something on me?"

"Would you like that? Perhaps that would be a pleasant way to change things up."

I didn't hit him, though. In fact, I simply found a suitable suit, he paid for it, and we went home.

Oh, but I had a _plan_.

AN/ Yep, here comes the start of a fight of a different kind :3 Hopefully I can pull this off like I'm planning xD Sorry for cutting Gray-time off so short, but you know how clingy Mr. Dupre gets… xD


	45. Chapter 44

"Hey, Blood. I brought you some tea," I greeted, offering el Mafioso exactly that. Well, not EXACTLY that, in the sense that obviously I'd screwed with the ingredients a bit. But whatnots aside, I brought him freaking leaf juice. Having remembered how he had intentionally embarrassed me during our outing last cycle, he intelligently sniffed the cup's contents before warily taking a sip.  
_'Yes Blood, you have fallen right into my trap,'_ I thought with evil satisfaction as he took a slightly larger drink.  
After a few seconds his eyes grew very wide, my little surprise for him beginning to take effect. At first I thought about putting salt in his drink, but I decided cayan pepper was far more appropriate. "T-Toki!" he stuttered angrily (if one CAN angrily stutter something), screwing up his face as thought that would make the burn go away. Oh, but it wouldn't. "What did you do to my tea?"  
I grinned Cheshire-cat style (whoo! I finally used a fitting analogy!). "April fools!"  
Yep, gotta love Wonderland and its elongated period of 'April fools' day'. Well, Blood didn't. "Toki," he grumbled, still waiting for his mouth to cool down. I took this as good incentive to leave.

* * *

"Hey, Blood. I brought you some tea." Deja vu, eh? This time, however, I had actually done nothing to his beverage- I was planning on being nice and reconciling with him by delivering it for him- so unless Aido spiked it before I snatched it away from him it should have been perfectly normal.  
"No thank you, Miss Toi," he muttered distrustfully. Come on, Blood, a real man drinks tea no matter what possible risks there may be.  
"Are you sure~? Because I swear on Gackt's soul I didn't put anything in it." Heck, I didn't even make it, and any vow on the essence of a Japanese pop star is serious business in my book.  
Not sure as to exactly what a 'Gackt' was, nor its importance to me, he once more declined. And so, I got to have some fun by pouring the entire contents of a teapot down the drain.  
So take that, England.  
Feeling content, I skipped off contentedly for a while to go partake in... Toki things. You don't have to know everything I do, stalker. Geez. AND I TOTALLY WAS NOT EATING FROM MY CANDY STASH, ELLIOT. SO SHUT UP.  
Upon my epic return to Blood's room- slash- office- slash- whatever- the- bugger- you- want- to- call- it, the boss, who seemed to be in a much better mood after drowning his life's frustrations in tea (and probably a bit of an unidentified alcoholic substance) smiled at me welcomingly.  
"Ah, good evening, Toki." I sat beside him on the scarlet sofa and cuddled up close to him, content with my earlier exploit as my revenge for the day. Evidently, however, my totally mature boyfriend had OTHER plans. "That's for you, since you seem to be sick of tea," he told me, pointint to a can of soda on the table. I quickly denied that I disliked tea, much to his amusement, because I totally wasn't freaking subtle, but I refused to admit defeat in that case.  
Now, had I not been so long debrived of carbonated beverages as per royal decree (see, one of those 'Toki things' I did in the past involved a certain white and fluffy Prime Minister and a bottle of root beer...) I probably would have eyed him suspiciously. However, the temptation of not only breaking the one-and-only official law specific to me and the fact that I took it more of as him trying to suck up to me to get me in a good mood for... obvious reasons than him getting petty payback.  
When I popped open the can I learned two things: A), it was diet, which is just flat out gross, and B) it had recently been shaken vigorously, much to my annoyance .Even if it was diet, soda deserves not be wasted! Seriously, isn't that in those eleven commandments or something?  
Now covered in the contents of my drink, I glared at him disapprovingly, so tempted to say "Son, I am disappoint." I went with a slightly more hypocritical line, thought. "Blood, seriously, you are so immature."  
He laughed as though I had said something hilarious. Which, I guess I did. Because we all know how totally grown-up I act. "Really now? I'M the immature one?"  
"Yes. We've had this discussion before. Now go get me something to get wiped off with," I demanded with a glare. He apparently had already expected me to say that and pulled out a convenient towel for me. I indignantly cleaned up the mess (except what ended up on his couch, that was Aido's problem, not mine) and stuck my tongue out at him. "You're walking on thin ice, bro," I warned, returning to my previous position of leaning on his arm. Jerk or not, he was still warm and snugly.  
Yeah, only I could describe a mafia boss as 'warm and snuggle.' I've got a real problem, don't I? Now, you'd think I would have left it off there, with us both being content with our pranks. However, I loved having the last laugh more than Ace did.  
So bugger everything, I was going to get back at him.

/Yay, new chapter finally XD Looks like this is going to be a plot arc O.o My friends already gave me some awesome prank ideas, too :3 However, if anyone has any suggestions I'd love to hear them!

Also, once I again I would like to point out my profile poll (Who is your favorite Alice in the Country of Hearts Character?)! For those of you who are already familiar with Diamond No Kuni No Alice, I've added a special extra name to the list, as well! I'll need the results for chapter **60** so it will be open until that chapter is ready!


	46. Mythical Detective Toki RagnarokExtra

Ah, London- it has to be the best city on Earth. No, not just on Earth, in our solar system. Then again, there aren't really any other cities outside of Earth, so I suppose it doesn't really matter. In any case, there I was in the land of the British, staring out the window at the city. I couldn't really see much though, because it was the dead of the night and it was raining so heavily I wished I had the power to go stab the clouds for ruining my vacation.

I guess before I go off on any more tangents I should introduce myself, because I'm pretty sure it'd be sort of strange for me to just start ranting something off to you when you don't even know me. My name is Victoria Valentine, but I go by Toki because frankly I hate my name. And _you_, my privileged sir-slash-madam, get to hear my lovely tale of the time I was a detective.

Anyway, now that I got that out of the way I'm going to continue my story. The morning after the rain had stopped- it was a Tuesday by the way, my least favorite day of the week- I decided to go out into the streets to wander about uselessly and obstruct traffic. After all, those were my favorite things to do.

That was when I looked across the street and spotted the most horrific and disgusting sight I'd ever seen.

There, sitting on the curb, was the most amazing hat that I had ever laid eyes upon. And it was just sitting there on the ground, lost and alone. So, without any regard for my personal being I threw myself across the wet road, narrowly avoiding being hit by a crazed bicyclist, and snatched up the feather-adorned treasure from where it had been abandoned by its cruel former owner.

"¡_Dios mio!_ Who would leave behind a hat this beautiful?" I shouted to no one in particular, drawing a slightly small crowd. Well, that's a blatant lie; actually there were about twenty English people staring at me. You see, when I shout it sounds more like an angry elephant screaming into a megaphone. Ignoring the confused stares I placed the hat on my head, playing with the vibrant blue feathers and continued down the street, totally oblivious at the time as to how strange a Gothic Lolita girl with a silly hat and eyes as green as a neon-green Crayola crayon must look.

Awesome descriptive similes aside, an eerily black alleyway caught my eye as I walked, making me stop to look. It looked pretty much like the place where a murderer would hide corpses or something.

I heard what sounded like someone whispering some satanic incantation, and being me I was incredibly tempted to investigate for some reason. Honestly I can barely understand what I was going for with that. Trying my hardest to avoid detection I crept carefully into the blackness, my vision completely obscured by the shadows. I squinted in the darkness, attempting to find out just who was there with me. For the longest time I managed to stay perfectly silent, and then as if every divine being ever imagined hated me I sneezed. Actually, I sneezed twice.

Of all the times to sneeze I did when it could have been potentially fatal. Isn't that so great?

The chanting stopped and to my surprise and confusion the alley lit up, as though the sun had been blocked out by someone's misplaced giant pizza and they had picked said pizza up as soon as the muttering ended.

"Oh my dear Gackt!" I pointed at the white-trench-coat-wearing young man, who I assumed was probably about a year or two older than I was, with completely unhidable excitement. "Your hair... it's _blue_!"

The smallest things amaze me- mainly hats, accents, and hair, though. He cleared his throat, narrowing his eyes, which were the same color as his pretty long hair, at me. "Where did you get that hat?" he demanded in an amazingly cute British voice.

"The ground on Berwich Road, actually," I retorted, deciding to sound spiteful for no reason whatsoever.

There was a long moment of silence as he examined me and I fawned over his hair to myself. I'm ninety percent sure that half of what I was thinking I ended up saying out loud, but he only stared awkwardly at me about three times. Finally he spoke, much to my enjoyment.

"Can that for a second?" He kept his voice low as though he was telling me he was going to kill Now, usually when weird people ask to see something in a serial killer-like tone like what they want you to give them will cause the world to implode, you don't give it to them. But I'm Toki, my friend, and lack basic logic skills.

I handed him the hat without hesitation. "Thanks." He gave me a slightly-more-than-slightly demented grin before turning and running.

It was like being robbed, minus effort on the thief's part. Not that I actually owned the hat any more than he did, so looking back this whole adventure was a huge waste of my time, but that's beside the point. "Bugger." I watched him disappear into the busy street, because there was absolutely no way I was chasing someone while wearing a skirt.

Unfortunately for Mr. I-Have-the-Coolest-Hair-Ever, no matter how easily distracted and insane I may be, one thing I have is determination.

I returned to my hotel room after a bit more obstruction of traffic, beginning to do my research. I ended up with two maps of London and the date for the next official London furry meet and anime expo. I guess trying to look up people with blue hair living in the UK. would lead to those discoveries.

On Wednesday the clouds had returned to the sky and it was so foggy it was disturbing. All of the current evidence led back to my conclusion that the world was out to get me and as I made my way up and down the streets, grumbling to myself and on occasion humming the theme from my favorite show out of boredom. I saw absolutely no one with hair that could even begin to rival that of he who dared to steal my hat.

It was then that I spotted something through the mist. It was either Mr. Thief, or Mr. Thief's identical twin brother, wearing a golden mask with a chain hanging from the left side. A small group of people was standing around him, staring in amazement as he performed what appeared to be some advanced magic trick that I would never be able to comprehend. I poked up behind the shortest person in the crowd, watching him for a moment. My eyes wandered behind him and I jumped back, startled, as I looked at the table behind him.

There was a huge fox laying across the table. But it wasn't just a fox; this fox was wearing a vest, an eye patch, and a monocle. That was just one reason among many that makes London such a great place.

"And now," the blue-haired man began, "for the magnificent Clock's final performance, my friend William here will speak. I assure you, this is genuine. There are no tricks involved." He gestured towards the quadruped sprawled out lazily, who I swear gave him an evil glare.

"Very well then. Evidently you want me to take part in your silly games." My surprised gasp blended with the rest of the group's as the fox stood up and spoke. He yawned before going on, while I tried to find out what sort of amazing ventriloquism this could possibly have been. "Please everyone, quiet down. I would much like to return to my nap now that I've entertained you all." With that he lay back down, closing his eyes and resting his snout on his paws.

That was my kind of guy right there- fluffy, British, and lazy. I was lacking halfway in the British department and except when I stole my friend's fur-suit mask I wasn't what one would call "fluffy", but laziness is one of my strong points.

It was then that my true target was sighted- the street-performer pulled out the hat and people tossed more money into it than I could make in two weeks. I didn't even _like_ the guy and I would've paid him if I had money.

After he had shooed the others away I approached him, putting on the most disgusted expression I could. "Oh my... Aren't you the girl who returned my hat to me yesterday?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No, you're the creep that stole the hat I found."

"I didn't steal it. It belonged to me in the first place."

"You have no proof of that."

He pinched the bridge of his nose with a loud sigh. "Look, this hat is very... important, shall I say, to me."

"Why? Is that where you keep your white rabbit?"

"Nonsense. If I kept a rabbit in my hat then William would end up eating it." William, who apparently decided against his nap, jumped down from the table and stared up at me.

"And who is this, Eric?" he muttered, twitching his whiskers and sniffing my leg. I backed away slightly. "Your girlfriend? I thought even _you_ had some standards."

"Excuse me, you stupid fur-ball! I have ears you know!"

"Be that as it may, having ears means nothing if you haven't the brain to comprehend what you hear." It was around that point that I started to hate "The Magnificent Clock" and his pet.

"Now then..." Eric turned away from me, looking down at William. "Will, do you know what happened to Uncle?"

The fox stretched out with another yawn, both of them now completely disregarding me. "No, I'm afraid not."

"Oh my..." The performer snapped his fingers, grinning devilishly at me, before vanishing into a cloud of smoke.

I realized that getting that hat would be much more difficult than I had originally imagined. "Miss, it would be best if you explored no further into our affairs," the fox said, reminding me of his presence. Yeah, I know that it's strange to forget about a talking animal. "Though I think this could prove to be quite intriguing..." He rambled softly to himself for a minute before I decided to interrupt him.

"So... Yeah, it was nice meeting you and all, but I'm more interested in finding that Eric guy and getting back my hat than listening to a fox talk to himself." I'm about as blunt as a stick after sanding down the edge for three hours. I'm also about as great at making comparisons as I am at staying focused on one thing for more than two minutes, and for that I apologize.

"Well then, if you're that desperate for his hat, I suppose I'll help you out a bit." He stood up on his hind legs like a digitigrade short person. "As you saw earlier, Mr. Clock is far from a regular human. So I'll give you a little clue, and _you _find him from there."

"Um... Thanks."

"Now then, here is your hint. I suggest you remember it well. 'When _Alfrothul _rests at her peak search for _Brâvoll _near the river_. _As Hati chases away his brother you will find what you seek at the base of _Yggdrasil."_

Naturally, I stared at him like he was the dumbest creature in existence and pondered if I perhaps was hallucinating the whole thing after hearing all of the big fancy words he threw at me. "Wait, when who is waiting where? And what the heck is Yigbasil? Some sort of spice?"

He smiled evilly at me. "I've given you all that I'm willing to. For now, _bless_." He also made an amazingly show-offish exit, disappearing right in front of me. I was completely and totally jealous because _I _couldn't vanish magically. It seemed horribly unfair to me.

I made sure to memorize all of the weird things Will had said to me, and as soon as I got back to my room I began running as many Google searches as I could using the hotel's free WI-Fi and my trusty laptop.

Fortunately for me I happened to find a document called the "Poetic Edda" containing all of the strange words. Alas, nothing can ever go _too _easily for a Toki. My search had given me a sacred text from Iceland, translated by some guy named Henry in the early 1900s.

One of few things I had hated more than reading things that weren't manga was reading direct translations of ancient writing. Not that I'd ever actually done that before, but that is entirely beside the point.

I scanned the file at first, but I had no clue how to spell anything the fox had told me so it was totally pointless. Finally I gave up and started to actually read.

I was surprised when I realized that despite the fact that I couldn't fully comprehend it I actually enjoyed the poems recorded in the document.

I stayed home on Thursday, finishing up my analysis of the writings at about seven P.M. I then began to think as hard as I could about the riddle. In the Edda the name _Alfrothul_ was used to refer to the sun, _Brâvoll _was a place where some guy was talking about riding a horse, Hati was a wolf that chased the moon, and Yggdrasil was a giant 'world tree'. There were no herbs involved.

I wasn't fully sure if I understood- then again a talking fox was the one who gave me the message in the first place- but I did my best to process the message before finally deciding to go to bed.

In the morning I finally came up with what William had meant and after quickly throwing on my most comfortable outfit I did what I do best: I sat down, turned on my laptop, and started watching a random episode of "Black Butler" until noon.

Then I set out on my epic quest. You're probably wondering why I went through so much for a silly hat, but at that point it was more or less just because I wanted to show up Eric and his stupid vanishing abilities.

I kept an eye on the sky as the cab I had called- there was no way I was walking all the way to the river- followed the twisting road until finally a huge field beside the water became visible, which I assumed was what William had been referencing to. I payed the taxi driver, climbing out and beginning to scan the area.

Now that I was in _Brâvoll _all I had to do was find Yggdrasil and wait for Hati to bring the moon into the sky. I guess the fox's puzzle had been pretty simple after all, looking back.

I sat down by the base of the only tree I could find, leaning back against the trunk and after a while I dozed off.

"Excuse me, miss?"

I jumped, startled, upon waking up. I was in a small room with a window in one corner and a little paper-covered desk beside a wooden staircase, staring up at a man with purple hair who looked like he should be on his way to Eurofurence. On his head were two fox ears that reminded me of Will.

"Who are you?" I demanded, in a slightly more normal volume than I typically spoke in.

"My name's Pandora. Pleased to meet you," he said, bowing his head all formal-like.

"Right. So, might I ask where we are?"

"This is my study, of course." The way he told me that made it sound like I was an idiot for not knowing such common knowledge.

"Last time I checked I was sleeping under a tree."

"Be that as it may, it appears you're here now."

"Don't you find that the least bit strange?"

He shrugged. "Nah. I'm used to Eric bringing strange girls home."

He had already been on my last nerve when he had taken an irritating tone of voice with me. With that last comment he stepped over that nerve then pounded it with a hammer, and for good measure he ran it over with a monster truck or two.

"I AM NOT ERIC'S STUPID GIRLFRIEND!" I yelled so loudly I felt that if this story were a manga it would be so emphasized that it would be in its own fancy font and take up at least five panels.

Evidently Pandora wasn't used to stricking this reaction, and the fox-eared man cringed into the corner, covering his head with his arms as though I was a tornado as opposed to a short twig of an eighteen-year-old girl.

"What is going on in here, Uncle?" I turned to the stairs, where William and Eric were now standing.

"Oh, hi there!" Pandora stood up again, brushing himself off. I'm pretty sure he was trying to pretend that he hadn't just hidden in fear from someone as pitifully un-intimidating as me. "This girl just randomly showed up." He looked at me. "Why are you here, anyway?"

William snickered. "I see you've decoded my message. I'm impressed." He gave me a Cheshire-Cat grin that really made me want to walk over and hit him.

"What is with you?" Mr. Clock asked in slightly horrified confusion upon seeing me. "Look, you can't have that hat, okay? So just get over it."

I tossed him my best death-glare, which I had perfected upon my last visit to England when some really fat guy stepped on my foot, causing him to pinch his nose like he had a migraine. "William, why would you tell her how to get here?"

"I thought it would be fun. Which it was."

I had finally found him, my Moriarty. And it was all for the amusement of some stupid fox.

"Wait, so she's after your hat?" Pandora felt the need to chime in because he was feeling lonely and neglected.

"Yes. She's been following me for three days."

"Get it for me."

Eric didn't bother questioning his uncle, who I assumed at that point was always totally insane, and disappeared upstairs for a few moments before returning to the study with the hat in hand. He held it out to his purple-haired uncle, who took the hat and placed it on his desk.

William jumped up beside it, twitching his tail, and watched him intently. "This should solve your problem."

We all stared in silence as he closed his eyes, focused on the stylish headwear, waiting with baited breath to see what his resolution was.

And then, just as I blinked, the hat was replaced with a squirrel.

I hope you enjoyed my little story of my second most exciting vacation to London. I'd tell you about the most exciting one, but I highly doubt you'd believe it, because it's even more unbelievable than me meeting a talking fox, a crazed furry in a magic house, and a blue-haired witch. After the squirrel incident Eric declared that I was annoying, muttered a few colorful things to himself, and stormed off. Will walked me back to the hotel (and how strange it must've looked) and I never saw any of them again, sadly.

I think there's a lesson to be gained from my detective-ness. But I'll leave it up to _you_ to find that moral. At least I myself learned that squirrels can be formed from cool hats, and after the whole incident I had two nice new hobbies- reading about vikings and practicing magic tricks. So, I suppose the whole incident was pretty beneficial. Plus, I had a new rival with blue hair to look forward to tracking down when I went to London. I can't just let my deduction skills go to waste, now can I?

/This was an assignment for English class XD I had to write a detective story, so I used Toki and my OC Eric~. I know this doesn't fit the category of 'fanfiction', but consider it a bonus chapter XD

The title is a reference to Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok, by the way :3 I might go back and edit this to be more Toki-ish later (meaning I'm going to throw in more CAPS SPAM, the word 'freaking', and FRAGMENTS! XD)

I hope you enjoyed this XD


	47. Chapter 45

There's something magical about the word revenge. Maybe it's just how it rolls off your tongue, or its denotation of getting back at someone who wronged you. Or because, let's just all admit it, of all words in the English and Hindu languages, it's on the top twenty list of words that just. Look. Sexy.

Okay, so maybe that was something I should've written in my diary instead of telling you guys. Sorry, I guess my personal preference in words should stay that way, huh? But you know you thought it too, at LEAST once.

"_Connotation,_ that's it," I said out loud, expressing my interest in the goings on of the mafia quite clearly. Blood had insisted I come to a meeting, thank Gackt it was only with Elliot and a few facelesses in charge of the other parts of the manor and not some enemy or something, and learn a bit about how things work. I think he was... well, I KNOW he was implying I should get a job since gatekeepering fell flat.

I told him several times Aido would be more than happy to give me a second chance at grocery shopping, but apparently the ban was life-long. I personally think life-long bans are relative. I mean, whose life are we talking about? Mine? Because heck, I could drop dead any minute now- it's been 18 years since I was born; that's 9 years for news to reach God and 9 years for the smite to hit. You know, if you take Mother Russia for example.

"That's what?" the not-so-rodent-of-fluffy-ears asked. Leave it to him to try and get me in trouble.

"You know, the thing that makes the word 'revenge' sound so sexy-desu," I said as though he'd listened to that recapitulation a few moments ago, too. "It's cause it's all like, dark and mysterious connotationally."

"As relevant as that is," Blood cut in, stopping a potential fist-fight, "I don't believe any of us have a need for revenge as of the moment, now do we?" He gave me a look, though. It was a look that said, 'bring it on, midget.' And if there's one thing I hate, its intrapersonal interpretations of a short joke hidden subtly in a vague glance. So, I returned the look, which according to my theory that he was calling me midget probably wasn't the best choice, because he's not really that short. Whatever.

I was promptly asked to leave and skipped off to Blood's room to change out of the stuffy suit he made me wear, saying that my outfits were inappropriate when I'd gone to get dressed for the day. Pfft. It's not like I go waltzing around dressed like a strumpet! Anyway, I found the drawer that I had requisitioned to store my clothes in totally empty. Save for… well, let's just say a few "scraps of fabric." I threw the there's-not-enough-there-to-even-cover-anything-so-they-can't-really-be-called-clothing articles in one of his drawers and instead just took off the jacket. I refused to admit defeat in my own game, and obviously this had to be the work of my dastardly love-interest.

"Ah, Aido. Just the guy I was hoping to see." He made an 'oh-god' face when he heard my voice. "When Blood gets out of that meeting, can you tell him I'll be back soon?" I finished sweetly. I just love scaring the life out of that guy.

"Er, sure."

"Thanks~!" With that I skipped away, off to the Amusement Park to converse with a particular cat who seemed to have an eye for a good trick and, unlike the twins, probably wouldn't immediately resort to heavy weaponry if I asked for ideas. He wasn't hard to find, being bright pink and all (I mean, he practically glows in the sunlight. It's buggering EPIC), and I shouted after him.

"Boris! Just the member of the order felidae I was looking to see." Too bad his name wasn't Francis, or maybe even if he was just a detective…

"Oh, really?" He came over, brushing up against me. "What do you need?" I swear, he was trying to seduce me or something.

"Pranks," I stated flatly.

"Pranks, huh? For who?"

"I'll give you a hint. His name starts with a "B" and it isn't Baldroy.

"You sure I won't get into trouble with the Hatter for helping you, then?" Pfft, Boris, we all know you wouldn't care. I think he just wanted an excuse to use his kitty-adorableness-powers-desu and tilt his head to the side. "Nope. And I can't guarantee I won't tell him your identity."

He grinned. "Well, I'll take my chances. So, what kind of trick are you looking for?"

"The good kind." As if he couldn't look any more evil, he suddenly got even better.

/Woo, late chapter XD Sorry guys, been workin' on my original stories lately D: So, next updates from me will probably be: Flipside, one of my Empire of Sin fics (probably iSave Project Avalon or When the Day Met the Night), and possibly I will finish either All the King's Horses or All the King's Men (GrayXToki and AceXToki short series).

IFFFFFF there's any story of mine you'd like to see another chapter of, just review it or send me a PM and ask me to work on it! I seriously can't read minds, so I tend to just update randomly, but chances are if you send me a message a new chapter will pop up in a day or so ;3

**ALSOOO**- I'd like to mention that I'm lost for short story ideas and I would love to hear some! These won't be OC requests or anything (sorry, I can't write characters I don't know on a 'personal' level), but if you've got a goofy or interesting idea that you'd like to see (like, "Ace and Toki go on a picnic" or another little fluffy thing like Special Bond) send it to me! Doesn't have to be HNKNA- if I haven't seen the anime/manga/game/etc. the worst I can do is say... that I haven't seen it XD

Much love, thanks for reading! Also, remember to vote on my poll!


	48. Chapter 46

"Oh, Blood! I am _sooo _sorry! Was that water _scalding hot_? I did NOT know that. You know, maybe you should go change your clothes—something _I_ could do too, if someone hadn't made mine disappear."  
Famous last words, Toki. Yeah, I'll keep telling myself that. But come on, just snip a few words out there and my extremely sarcastic form of suicide could be documented as perhaps the most brilliant thing ever said, save for… I don't know, I'm sure Theodore Roosevelt said something cooler than I did though, because face it, he rode a freaking moose.  
I had but a few moments to live, and that depended on how fast A) Blood changed his pants in his bloodthirsty (interesting adjective, huh?) rage and B) how long it took for the itching powder to get properly irritating. Yes, I did put itching powder in the pants of a mafia boss (pants being as in every pair of his I could find, for obvious reasons) after pouring near-boiling water on him quite purposefully. No, I couldn't have been more subtle.  
He curbed his anger somehow, stalking off from our fortunately private (which, for once I mean exactly what I say, unless you count Aido as being another person. I like to think of him sort of like the horribly nervous dog that sits in the corner and makes it awkward every time I kiss Blood for longer than two seconds) little tea party without a word. I'm sure the whole way back inside he was grumbling to himself about how much trouble I was in. Or, you know, if I know him at all, all the things he wanted to shove up my backside.  
As soon as he was gone I decided it was hide-and-seek time. Between Boris and Monty Python I was well-informed on how not to be seen—and, should Blood decide to act on some of his muttering, how to defend myself against fresh fruit—so I chose my hiding place carefully. Ha ha, just kidding. I totally just stood outside of his room and practiced my puppy-that-just-peed-on-the-new-rug-but-you-still-want-to-hug-anyway face.  
"Flawless," I decided, knocking on the door with a sorrowful whimper for extra flavor. "Blood, can I come in?"  
No answer. He was totally sulking.  
I opened the door anyway and scanned the room for him, attempting a ninja roll to avoid any booby-traps he may have placed but succeeding only in hurting my arm. "I'm really sorry I gave you third degree burns, especially in front of our family pet," I apologized, finally thankful I'd taken cheesy acting classes in middle school and could cry on command.  
Then, I saw him. The jerk was freaking sitting on his bed, laughing his stupid head off in some crazed fit of hysteria. While scratching his leg, I add proudly.  
"Blood, are you all right? I mean, I know that stuff came from a pretty sketchy looking guy, but I tried it out on the kitty and he was just mildly uncomfortable for an hour, I swear!"  
"Clever, Toki, quite clever."  
He would never call my lame practical joke like that clever. Especially not after I threw hot water at him. "What are you playing at?" I asked, suddenly suspicious. I poked the couch nervously, imagining it turning into some sort of dinosaur for some reason. Hey, you don't need to know what goes on in my head ALL the time.  
"I'm not playing at anything. After all, this got you relatively nowhere." He grinned slyly, beckoning me with his finger to come over to his little padded room.  
"Jerk, this got me relatively everywhere."  
"Tell me what you mean by that and I might believe you." I sat down next to him, making sure to leave a bit of space between us in case he was really just giving me a false sense of security so he could kill me when I least expected it. If that were to happen, I wanted to get as much blood on the pillows as possible.  
"I mean you suck, therefore I will do whatever it takes to get revenge."  
"You're lucky I like you, Toki; I hope you know that."  
"I know that better than anyone."  
And so, as predicted, he was left a-bit-more-than-mildly annoyed for about an hour or so before finally the urge to rip his skin off wore down and he was capable again of thinking like a rational human being. "How does tea sound?" I offered with an evil smile destined to get me lynched by the mafia.  
"It sounds lovely, if you aren't there." I suppose I had been messing with his favorite drink far to often as of late for him to want me around.  
Thank. Freakin'. God.  
"Aw, I love you too."  
Anyway, Blood did as expected, skulking off to go procure a cup of hot leaf extract, but there was something he forgot.  
"Bugger yes."  
I crept over, perhaps _too_ dramatically, toward his desk as though it was going to evade my inevitable assault. Perhaps it was rigged—I would take the hat, and then the 16-ton weight would be dropped—but it was well worth the risk.  
As triumphantly I placed the cap upon my head, however, I realized that something far worse was at work here. It was like that time I had head lice. Only worse.  
How he found my stash of pranks, I don't know, but I knew deep, DEEP down in my empty pit of a soul, that the itching powder in his hat, so cleverly disguised as a prize for my victory, was just a warning.  
What were we getting revenge for again, anyway?

AN/ Yep, new chapter finally. And even Toki forgets what the bickering is about xD I realize that this story is like an English teacher's nightmare… ironic, really XD  
Anyway, sorry for the lack of updates recently, I now have an entire geometry class (read: 10 people) reminding me to work on my novel, so fanfics are second priority now. I do have a chapter of When the Day Met the Night somewhere, though. 


	49. Chapter 47

"Bl-Blood?" There was a soft knock on the door, which immediately signaled that within the half-an-hour Toki had been gone she had done something destructive and was coming to beg for forgiveness. How cute. "Can I… come in? I have to tell you something."

Certainly, whatever it had been that she'd broken or drawn on must have been important. I checked to make sure my hat was untouched, nearly sighing with relief when I saw that it was still in its new place on the highest shelf. "Yes, of course, Toki." She hesitated, though finally decided to face her fate (why she was so dead-set on the fact that I was going to kill her over every little offense, I wasn't sure. If I was going to kill her I would have done it long before she had the chance to ravage my mansion) and came in, walking with her head lowered over to my desk.

"So, um… You-you know how before… when stuff happened and we… did that thing?" Her face turned a vibrant shade of red. "Yeah… I-I'm, well… pregnant."

Surprised, I spit out my tea, though I quickly assured myself I'd heard wrong. "I'm sorry; I thought I heard you say you were pregnant."

"Good, your ears are working, at least."

This time I dropped the cup, which successfully covered a majority of my paperwork in shattered porcelain and hot water. "No, you can't be—ah, well played, Toki. This must be your attempt at getting back at me for the hat incident, isn't it?"

"No, I'm being serious."

I couldn't be a father. Absolutely not!

"Are you absolutely _positive?_"

"Y-yes." She clutched her stomach somewhat protectively, a solemn look crossing her face as though she was preparing herself for me to pull my gun on her and shoot her. Which was surely tempting, to say the least, and certainly I would have no one to justify my actions to but myself (and possibly a certain knight and assassin, I realized shortly afterward). After all the efforts I'd gone through to protect her, however, I knew I couldn't just kill the Outsider. Also, curiosity and intrigue, unfortunate as it may have been in the long run, would never let me put the situation to rest in such a boring manner. The death of a foreigner no longer held any particular interest in me after Alice.

"Blood, I know you're upset, but there's not really much we can… you know, do to change this." She was right, and as much as I hate to admit it, we were both equally responsible.

"Please just leave so I can think for a moment, Toki."

"Leave the room, the mansion, or the country?"

She finally settled on one, giving me at least a bit of peace. The idea of _Toki_, of all people, having a child—_my_ child—was insane at best.

Not a… particularly _bad_ idea, though. That is, until I realized that pregnancy meant several things: eventually, a child would be coming out of her body, and that child would require a lot of care and most likely many sleepless nights; she would probably be vomiting more frequently than my stomach wanted to think about; and, perhaps the most horrifying thing of all, her hormones would be so completely out of tune that, whether I wanted to at the time or not, there was no doubt in my mind that at some point, one of us would make an attempt on the other's life.

And I'm not much a fan of losing.

AN/ SORRY FOR TAKING SO LONG. I swear, I want to have the next chapter up a LOT sooner! Remember, the review button is still your friend, and it really would appreciate your feedback! xD

Also, if there are any Phantom of the Opera fans, Toki will soon be making her debut as time traveler extraordinaire, in a fanfic request for a good friend of mine :3


	50. Chapter 48

Dead.

I was _soooo_ dead.

And yet, I was just so freaking satisfied with myself that I really didn't care at the time, at least, not enough to try and rectify the situation before things got TOO bad. In case you're wondering, I had just successfully convinced Blood Dupre that there was a bun in my basket (or whatever the saying is) before making my escape.

Fortunately, his tea was on its way, carried by just the guy I wanted to see. "Aido, give this to Blood for me, would you?" I said casually, handing him a cute little envelope that I had taken the liberty of decorating with little stickers of kitty cats. "Just make sure you're out of there before he reads it. So, like... give him this, too." He was so lucky that I always came prepared, although the fact that I gave him a huge stack of official looking documents to read before he got my message seemed to make the servant pretty wary of my motives.

"Miss Toki, where did you get these?" he asked nervously, inspecting the paperwork which, evidently, he had just delivered to the boss last cycle. "And should I be worried about this other message?"

"Yes. That's why you give those to him first, genius, and make sure he thinks it was Elliot who took them." When in doubt, blame the bunny. Actually, just blame the bunny for everything; it always works for me.

"But, Miss Toki-"

"Don't you 'but Miss Toki' me. You take those papers in there and give them to him like a man!" Insulting any guy's manly pride usually works as an effective method to get them to do whatever you want, even if they don't realize that that's what's going on. With any luck, my little distraction would keep the boss busy for about fifteen minutes, giving me just enough time to get off the premises and start on my way to visit one of two people capable of beating the crap out of Mr. Mafioso if need be.

The trek through the woods wasn't as bad as I remember it, but the adrenaline may have helped a bit. I mean, it was either keep going, or stop and risk certain doom, because I had a feeling the first place Blood would look for me would be the place I was at. He's pretty good at finding me, which is, in most cases, pretty cool. Not now, however.

Still, the sweet, delicious satisfaction of knowing that soon, he would get that special note from me, made me feel freaking awesome.

I can't even imagine the look on his face.

"Dear Blood, JUST KIDDING."

Don't worry kiddos, I wasn't actually pregnant. Somehow. I mean, we were pretty... let's just say 'careless' when it came to that process, so I guess Blood's procreatory skills might have just been lacking. Pfft, of all things to suck at.

So, we all pretty much know where this is going, right? As per usual, I was on my way to visit my mommy when I came across a particular knight in the woods, looking particularly like he belonged there despite probably (scratch the probably, actually) being horrendously lost.

"Hi Toki! Hahaha~, what are you doing out here?"

"Running for my life."

"Oh? Why?"

"Because I like living and I just told Blood Dupre I'm pregnant."

"Oh, really?" He leaned in very close with his favorite rape-face equipped, putting his hand on my shoulder. "So, the boss knocked you up, huh? Since you're already pregnant, you should let me have a turn now."

I wasn't sure at first how to respond. Slapping him seemed a bad idea, and I was totally lost for words. So, some gibberish ensued, followed by a, "IWASJOKINGI'MNOTREALLYPREGNANTYOUFREAKANDNOYOUMAY NOT'HAVEATURN'WHATAMISOMEFREAKINGGAME?!"

"Funny you should say that~." Okay, saying 'game' was probably a bad choice of words. "But I bet your heart would beat so loudly... how cute." I expected him to lean in and try to kiss me or something creepy, but he seemed to have finally begun to respect my boundaries, if not only a little bit, and simply patted me on the head and went back to grinning. "Where were you going, anyway?"

"To see Gray. I figured if anyone could help me, it would be him."

"I could keep you safe, you know!" he complained, insulted that I'd chosen the lizard over him. "But I can walk you there, if you want. I don't want you to get hurt~."

That was an offer I certainly didn't want to refuse. Walking around in the woods alone so often had taught me one thing- I hated walking around in the woods alone. Also, Ace and I had made some progress, so instead of dragging him, all I had to do was hold his hand to get him to follow me. Kind of like a kindergartner.

As we walked, I enlightened him to the events of the past week or so, and he found equal relish in my victories over Blood as I did. The tower came up soon enough, of course, Ace didn't want to escort me in, but did so anyway in a rare act of chivalry, before vanishing completely back into the forest. I was a touch worried about him- it had started raining outside shortly before we got there- but I'm pretty sure he's handled himself in worse situations before.

Now, as you'd expect from me, I was surely tempted to tell Gray I was with child, too. I refrained from doing so, but after giving him a vague idea of what had actually occurred I was welcomed in and given a place to sit and relax.

And, as you'd expect from Blood, he was barely a step behind me.

"Toki."

That was all he said as he pushed past the assassino to glare at me. Just my name. I sort of cringed a bit, so he achieved the effect I think he was going for, at least. "Hi, Blood," I said innocently, smiling. If I was going down, I was going down with heavy sarcasm.

"You're... ugh..." He couldn't really say anything that made much sense, but he got his point across. In the end, Gray gave us some space once he'd calmed down, and the mafia boss took a seat next to me. "Do you have any idea how upset I am with you?" he demanded when I offered an innocent smile. I quickly changed my tune, looking down at his leg to avoid eye contact, trying to steal a glance at his face without him noticing.

"I'm sorry... I didn't think you'd actually believe me-"

"And why wouldn't I?" He grabbed my shoulder a bit more violently than he seemed to want to, turning my head up and staring at me with a burning seriousness in his eyes. I didn't want to see his face, but he wouldn't let me look away. "This isn't something I would even expect _you_ to joke about, Toki. What if you really were pregnant? Do you realize how much we would have to change then? Something like that... you might as well have told me you ran off and slept with the knight and then given me that note! How would you feel if I did that to you?"

You know, looking back, if I hadn't felt so freaking bad, I probably would've told him I'd be fine with it if he'd gone off to sleep with Ace, but that would've been sooo inappropriate at the time.

"How do you think you made me feel acting like you did when we were shopping before?" I snapped in return.

"You did a right fine job of making a joke of that, if I do recall correctly, so don't try to blame this on me!"

"I don't see what you're so angry about! It's not like I'm really going to have a baby or anything, so you don't have to freaking worry about that! Gods forbid you have another part of your life to hide from everyone!"

"And what if this was something I actually wanted? Clearly now I know _you're_ not mature enough to raise a child!"

"And you think _you _could-" Then, I stopped. I realized two things: one, arguing was going to get us nowhere; and two, exactly WHAT we were accusing each other of. "You... actually wanted me to be pregnant?" Unexpected twist.

It was his turn to fall quiet, his face red from shouting as he stared down at the ground. "Wouldn't that be an intriguing turn of events, though? Think about it, us, having a baby..."

Oh god. Please, if you guys value your mental stability, do NOT try that at home. Thinking about me and Blood having a baby, by the way, that's what you shouldn't do. Not like, don't try having a baby at home. Because really, that's totally up to you.

"Do you really think we could even handle having a kid, though?"

He shrugged, resting his hand on my arm more gently this time. "Probably not. But I do say, we'd make interesting parents." We shared a laugh over that one, and I found myself resting my head comfortably on his shoulder.

"Well, anything's possible in Wonderland, right?"

"Indeed."

For the first time in a while, returning to the mansion felt like really going home.

/AN. And that concludes Toki and Blood's little grudge-match. I hope you guys enjoyed that arc's conclusion, if not... well, you'll probably get over it. I mean, it's just a fanfic, after all. /Ooh, that'd be so cool if people were like, losing sleep over my updates... pfft. Keep dreaming, Haru./

Word count was up past 1600 for this one, because luckily for you I contracted a weak strain of some sort of stomach bug and had to miss school, so I actually spent a lot of time on this one.

Anyway, I hope everyone had a nice holiday! I'm personally looking forward to this weekend for Tekkoshocon x3


	51. Chapter 49

I'm pretty sure I've put a pretty strong emphasis on how amazing it was living at the Hatter Mansion, but in case you have the attention span of like, Elliot or something, I figure I should reiterate it again.

It was, by FAR, the most freaking amazingly wonderfully delightful thing EVER.

So basically, as usual, I made Blood carry me home so I could take a nap. And when I woke up? Hot. Freaking. Chocolate. Right there on the nightstand! Like, seriously! The service in the mansion _rocked_, okay? Aido was quite certainly a boss at what he did, no matter what Blood might call himself.

Now, I should have sensed the warning signs; things were never that easy, not with Señor Mafioso afoot. I mean, he would never be that nice as to leave a warm, fragrant mug of beautiful, chocolaty goodness just slightly out of my reach, and to let me have it without a fight. By that point it was downright inconceivable that I didn't immediately decide it was a trap, especially given that he was the number one obstacle to reach the beverage in question.

"Oh Blooooo~d," I called as quietly as I was capable of doing, pushing on his shoulder a few times. He appeared to be asleep… Just to be safe, I reached down and traced my fingers along his hip (because obviously, if he was awake that totally would've blown his cover), and when there was no reaction, I decided the coast must be clear.

I stood up slowly and, with all the stealth of a ninja-raccoon cloaked in the shadows of the night, crawled over the lazy lump that was my boyfriend. Even with me sitting atop him, he didn't wake up, so I carried on.

I reached for my prize, slowly, gently, gracefully…almost there, almost got it…

_Fwop!_

Suddenly, I found myself on the floor, the mug still in its resting place safely out of my reach. Wow, Blood, you're cool.

Also, I'm just gonna put it out there that "fwop" is like, the WORST word to describe the sound of a tiny girl being thrown to the ground by a sneaky psychopath. I think I need to have a word with my manager or something. Like, seriously, fwop? FWOP? Eh… I'll get over it, I guess… (Pfft not likely.)

"Got you," he said with a sly grin. Dear god was it sexy, too.

"Are you sure about that?" He raised an eyebrow inquisitively. "You should never get in my way when chocolate is involved."

I was pretty serious about my chocolate indeed, especially of the hot variety with delectable mini marshmallows floating atop the surface. Of course, there was like, no way in heck I could actually take Blood on in a fight, but still. I can be pretty intimidating when I just woke up.

Usually at times like this, I like to let you guys just picture what's going on in your own little sick minds. Especially since I usually like to picture weird things happening in the background, like a turkey with a ferret strapped to his back flying in through the window, taking a book, and leaving. But, I will at least give you this—for about twelve to thirteen minutes, I used every ounce of strength I had in my weak little arms to push on the Hatter until finally I was totally exhausted and ready for another nap. Meanwhile, he just stared. He blinked a total of seven times in those twelve minutes, I tell you, and it was _creepy_. Creepy as _insert-profane-word-that-I-won't-say-because-this-story-is-bad-enough-without-adding-bad-language-to-the-rating-too._

Then, he sat up. He just got off of me, and you know what he did next? No, you don't. You DON'T know what he did next. And I WISH I didn't know. I wish more and more with each passing day that I didn't have to witness what he did next.

Slowly, _sadistically_, he reached for the cup. He held me at bay so easily it was pathetic, simply holding one hand to my chest.

Then, with the most horrible, cruel smile… it was hardly humanly possible, really, he put the cup to his lips. "Blood, you don't even like hot chocolate," I whimpered, almost in tears (*dramatization).

"No, in fact I do not, Toki. But, _you_ do."

And, as if taking the first sip wasn't satisfying enough for him, the jerk drank all of it. The. Whole. Cup.

It was enough to make me want to break up with him. I seriously contemplated it. I mean, what kind of freak gets off on drinking hot cocoa JUST so his girlfriend can't?

"But… but… Blood…" I made a pouty face as he stood up, wiping his lips with the back of his hand. "You… you jerk…"

And then he walked away.

HE JUST GOT UP AND WALKED AWAY.

HE PRACTICALLY LEFT ME THERE TO DIE, COLD, ALONE, AND WITHOUT CHOCOLATE.

Needless to say, I was over it in like, two minutes. At least, over it enough to want revenge. Nothing too clever, though; we all know how that worked out last time.

I stumbled about, harassing several of the locals as I did so, as I searched for Blood. When I didn't find him on the manor, I figured maybe his garden would be a good place to check. I didn't really go there much, seeing as the first time I did he took me back to his room and then strangled me with the intention of killing me, but… he DID say I was welcome there now.

Sadly, no Blood was to be found. There was his sister, at least; maybe SHE had some leads on his whereabouts.

"Um… Hello Vivaldi," I said with a dorky smile. After spending some time with her, I'd realized how freaking awesome she was. Of course, thank god she thought I was adorable, because no matter how much I admired someone, I totally sucked at the whole "not being offensive" thing.

"Ah, Miss Toki! Your presence here delights us," they greeted with the energy of a little girl. Err… little girls, plural. Something. Darn it, the whole "we" thing never really made sense to me.

"Um… thanks. Your presence delights me too?" Yes, just go with it, Toki.

"Please, join us for tea."

Crap. How do you reject an axe-crazy queen's invitation to sipping the most disgusting and horrible beverage known to man?

Sadly, you don't, I guess. I sat down, defeated for… what was this, like, the third time? I don't know, you've gotta give me credit for something there. I mean, I lived with the biggest (and probably only) tea fetishist in Wonderland, and he barely ever managed to get me to drink it.

By the way, I didn't have some traumatic tea-related experience in my childhood. I'm really not that deep. So you can get that image out of your pretty little head. Or ugly big head. I don't know, I really don't know what you look like, so I guess I can't really be the judge of your head size and/or quality of appearance.

"So, um… How have you been?"

"We have been fine. But we are much more interested in you."

She leaned over the little table, making the same face I'd seen a million times in middle school as my peers reached out desperately for some good ol' gossip to feed on. I didn't really have much though. "I pretended to be pregnant the other day, which would totally be possible by the way, just to mess with your brother because he was being a jerk to me before" wasn't very high on the list of things I actually wanted to say to people, and that was about all that really happened.

"Um… I don't know, things have been pretty… well, not boring, but… not interesting, lately."

This elicited a very… well, not friendly face. I think I seriously offended her, which probably gave me like, two hours to live.

Thank goodness for Blood having awesome timing.

"Good evening, Toki. I hope this old hag isn't boring you," he said, beaming as he sat down beside Vivaldi. She gave him a look on par with the one she'd just given me.

"Who are you calling an "old hag", you insolent child?"

"That would be you." He poured himself a cup of tea, and they resumed bickering for a bit before Vivaldi "had enough of his misogynistic nonsense" or something. I don't know what miso had to do with things, but I could go for like, a bowl of miso soup…

She trudged off in a huff, leaving me with Blood—who seemed to be on his most jerkish behavior possible this time cycle. He twiddled his thumbs for a bit and took a sip of leaf urine.

"Ah, it seems we're all alone now," he noted, putting his hand on my boob. I slapped it and inched back. "Is something wrong?"

"Are you drunk?"

He chuckled. "Perhaps, perhaps. Would that be a problem?"

"Perhaps."

"You aren't still upset about the cocoa, are you?" He sounded rather disappointed in me. "But, it was delicious. You really should have been faster."

You're steppin' on thin ice, Hatter. _Thin ice._

"YOU should have been nicer." I crossed my arms. Why was he being so mean today?

"…No, I think I prefer this."

"Why, do you get off on my frustration?"

"Yes, actually." He grabbed a lock of my hair and brought it to his face, stroking himself gently with it like a total creep. "Certainly you didn't think I was referring to the chocolate when I said it was delicious?" Finally, I had enough, and I reached over and snagged his cup.

"Yeah, well, you know what?" I pinched my nose and tilted my head back, pouring the vile fluid into my mouth.

I nearly choked on something, however, and suddenly was very concerned. "Holy frick!" I shouted, spitting out whatever solid object had been hiding in the dark depths of the tea cup. Blood looked rather offended, but I noticed a weird smile sliding up his face and I tilted my head. It was like I'd just played right into some cleverly placed trap…

He reached down and slid his hand around, looking for something—presumably whatever I'd just nearly died because of—and when he found it, he looked up at me with a raised eyebrow. "Was that a no?" he asked, wayyy too seriously.

"Was what a no?"

He grabbed my hand and stared at me for a long moment, before sliding a ring on my finger.

"Toki, will you be my wife?"

/AN: AGH SORRY FOR NO UPDATES GUYS. I HAD A BAD CASE OF A SOCIAL LIFE.

But yeah, I really am sorry about the huge drop-off there… This chapter turned out to be about twice the length of a normal one, so… shhhh. Hehe, next chapter makes 50, so… bonus content! I wanted to get chapter 50 done for today, since… 3rd anniversary and all that, but… whatever. CLOSE ENOUGH GUYS.


End file.
